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The insane thing is it amounts to "I don't like the dongle that actually works (DisplayPort), I want to use that dongle (DisplayLink)."

Once again, we see customers being burned because they didn't buy products which use the actual DisplayPort over USB-C standard.

Seriously, if you buy half-baked proprietary garbage, expect problems. DisplayLink's proprietary "solution" is wholly dependent on OS drivers, and they can't be bothered to maintain them. They had months to validate their driver works with the beta releases of MacOS; anybody with an Apple Developer account has access to it. DisplayLink's Linux "Driver" is for Ubuntu LTS only, and they have made no effort to release or test for any other release of Ubuntu, let alone any other distribution. Now, it's quite clear they've given MacOS the same amount of attention they give to Linux.

How is DisplayLink's broken driver the fault of anybody except DisplayLink? They didn't follow the DisplayPort standard. Let them lie in the bed they shart.

The day they have audio on display ports they can put as many as they want, until then we need HDMI.

lucm, lucm, we did that...ten years ago:

Does DisplayPort also support audio?

Yes, DisplayPort supports multi-channel audio and many advanced audio features. DisplayPort to HDMI adapters also include the ability to support HDMI audio.

I've never heard of display port audio working without an HDMI adapter, which basically makes it less useful than HDMI.

The day they have audio on display ports they can put as many as they want, until then we need HDMI.

lucm, lucm, we did that...ten years ago:

Does DisplayPort also support audio?

Yes, DisplayPort supports multi-channel audio and many advanced audio features. DisplayPort to HDMI adapters also include the ability to support HDMI audio.

Hear, hear.

Now, if they did this with DisplayPort, that'd be a different story, since it's (last time I checked) royalty-free.

I apologize in advance if this was a joke and the subtle humor eluded me (I'm not familiar w/ DP licensing) but DisplayPort has supported USB-C Alt Mode for quite a while already. Many laptops with USB-C connectors, such as recent MacBooks and the 2015 Dell XPS 13/15 models support it.

http://www.displayport.org/wha...

Because it is going to be USB-C next.

More specifically, it would most likely be DisplyPort Alt-Mode for USB-C (PDF Warning).

You get it the wrong way: the cable is used into a "Alternate Mode" http://www.displayport.org/pr/...

The video signals inside a USB type C cable are just plain Displayport signals without any modification. On the host side there is a multiplexer chip that can switch the source of the signals injected into the USB type C cable from either the USB host controller USB signals or from the GPU Displayport signals.

More clear explaination here: http://www.anandtech.com/show/...

You still don't use USB for displays.

You will soon...

If they were going for free wouldn't DisplyPort have been a better option? I mean HDMI is at its roots video DRM. With DisplyPort you can opt to output to almost every modern video connection available including HDMI.

Displayport has more video and audio bandwidth and much more aux data bandwidth.
As a VESA standard, it is royalty-free.
It relates much more closely to how modern digital displays are driven, allowing "Direct Drive Displays" and eliminating certain complexities in encoding/decoding DVI/HDMI.
eDP is replacing LVDS internally in notebooks, and iDP may replace LVDS in smaller devices, these share silicon with standard DP.

A lot of good detailed info here (start on page 16):
http://www.displayport.org/cms/sites/default/files/downloads/DisplayPort_Technical_Overview.pdf
obviously from VESA so it has some marketing stuff, but the technical details are right. They do omit the ability of HDMI 1.4 to run 100 Mb Ethernet, and HDMI's support of more color profiles.

Not exactly. The converters are needed only for dual-link communications.

"In the interest of interoperability, the display port connection is capable of supporting HDMI/DVI signals.[8] DisplayPort has issued guidelines on the construction of active DisplayPort-to-VGA, DisplayPort-to-SVIDEO/Composite/Other, DisplayPort-to-Dual-Link-DVI/HDMI, and Dual-Link-DVI/HDMI-to-DisplayPort Converters.[citation needed] In addition to active converters, the same guideline document also describes a way for devices supporting both DisplayPort and DVI 1.0 or HDMI to use a single DisplayPort connector for both, using a relatively simple adapter that adjusts for the lower voltages required by the DisplayPort connector. A notable limitation is that this is limited to Single Link DVI/HDMI, and that an active Converter is needed for Dual-Link communication."

The reference for that specific piece of info is here:

http://www.displayport.org/consumer/?q=content/faq