Yeah, the new USB-C standard creates a load of potential issues. As people get addicted to the new speed, they will demand more C ports. If manufacturers oblige, then decades of USB 3/2/1 devices will be rendered obsolete.
Most new motherboards have already dropped the PS/2 port, which is a shame. Unlike USB 3, the PS/2 protocol is not dependent on the CPU chipset. At the rate the tech is advancing, a few years from now, the USB 3/2 protocol will be called a "Legacy" port, just as PS/2 has been for the last decade.
USB-C ports are largely compatible with old device -- you just need an adapter which is easy to understand. Frankly, you're lucky you can plug in something made 10 years ago and have it work at all.
Also, what are you trying to say about PS/2 being independent of the CPU chipset in a way that USB is not? PS/2 has a lot of properties that make it suck. For one, it's ill-defined and ill-prepared to accept things like mice with extra buttons and custom refresh/DPI rates. For two, it does not officially support hotplugging. Imagine telling a millennial they have to reboot their computer in order to plug in the mouse.
Good thing I am a Millenial who knows that a PS/2 device needs to be plugged in before the computer boots.
Are you saying that mice with extra buttons did not exist during the PS/2 standard? Because PS/2 was still the standard back during the 2000s, when my family bought our first desktop computer. And while PC gaming was not mainstream during that decade, popular games like Doom and Wolfenstein came out during the early 90s.
As for the motherboard and CPU thing, it was something I learned because, back in 2020, I totally wanted to install Windows 7 on a Ryzen board. That was when I learned that the USB 3 protocol is controlled by the CPU chipset, and eventually, as the USB standard continues to evolve, Windows 7 will be left behind completely in the USB 2 era. Anyway, the motherboard I bought has a PS/2 port, and I had to buy and use a PS/2 mouse to complete the Windows 7 installation.
Another thing I learned, is that newer CPU chipsets, actually now "see" all USB ports as 3.x ports, even 2.0 ports. So, basically, even the USB 2.0 ports need USB 3.0 drivers now. Back then, it was still possible to find and install drivers that were compatible with the chipset, but it was kind of like a game of roulette, in that out of the total number of 3.x ports, some of them would not work. So, as time goes by, it will likely become impossible to install chipset drivers that work with Windows 7, even if a newer motherboard has a PS/2 port.
Are you saying that mice with extra buttons did not exist during the PS/2 standard?
The whole standard is ill defined. There's room in the protocol for random buttons. USB allows for more descriptive information between the hardware and host during negotiation. Thins like the mouse communicating the DPI and desired refresh rate are not supported at all in PS/2.
What the OS "sees" is dependent on the kind of controller. The USB 3.0 controller needs different drivers than 2.0. Motherboards ship/shipped with a mix of 2.0 and 3.0 controllers, which I thought was to save cost, but I suppose it also has the side effect of backwards compatibility.
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