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I stumbled upon the same problem when I bought my laptop a couple of years ago.
I bought this USB cd/dvd reader/writer only $19[^].
It has USB A connector but there is one for a bit more that has both A & C.
the nice thing is that I share it with other family members who only need it periodically also.
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Here's the quick rundown...
Lightening = Mac onry, EU no likey
USB A = sucks
USB B = sucks
USB C = used for data but screw why it, why not video too?
Thunderbolt = used for everything, even toasters... ripped of USB-C's fashion sense
HDMI = used for video and audio... unless you're a hacker with mad skillz
DisplayPort = used for video and audio, supports compression and probably AI too
Mini DisplayPort = looks a lot like Thunderbolt to me
3.5 audio jack = what's that again?
Jeremy Falcon
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I bought a compatible USB-C hub with power. Actually have two because I have had one fail before.
I plug all of the following into the hub
- Internet. There is a inline connector for that.
- usb keyboard (two plugs since mouse goes in via keyboard.)
- usb Headset.
- Sometimes a usb camera
Computer itself
- hub
- Two monitors
- External hard drive
- power (of course)
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Inbuilt CD/DVD drives are long gone. So much that MP3 songs/lectures are now sold on USB drives, and not on CDs/DVDs.
I use an external CD drive to read and play my collection of CDs / DVDs. Some of my CD/DVD content is backed up onto my 2TB external hard disk.
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No Ethernet port comes as a bit of a surprise, but it's been a long time I've seen a laptop come with a CD/DVD drive.
I still have a crapload of them in various drawers and still hooked up to other systems, so I'm not terribly worried...especially since I took the time, years ago, to rip pretty much all of the software I have that came on CD/DVD to ISOs.
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dandy72 wrote: No Ethernet port comes as a bit of a surprise
Smartphones never had them. I believe that few, if any, tablets ever had them. Removing them from laptops is the natural next step.
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trønderen wrote: Smartphones never had them.
Given that smartphones, by design, have wireless connectivity built-in, that's no surprise.
trønderen wrote: I believe that few, if any, tablets ever had them
You can always hook up a tablet to a dock that has one.
trønderen wrote: Removing them from laptops is the natural next step.
Which makes total sense. But given I'd still much rather have a cable (for reliability reasons), I don't think I'm ready yet to buy a laptop without an Ethernet port.
But then, I hate spending money on laptops, and I've only ever outright purchased one exactly once throughout my career. If a donated freebie doesn't come with one, I won't complain...it just wouldn't be my first choice.
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Take a look at Framework laptops.
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Why, you're selling them?
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Many moons ago, to help a friend out with a problem, I had to attach an old peripheral to my PC. My problem was that I couldn't find the COM port for plugging it in. I searched everywhere, but with no success. The absence of COM ports may not be remarkable (especially not today); more remarkable is that the PC was almost 3 years old at the time, and in those 3 years I had never noticed that the COM was missing. So maybe the PC manufacturer was right, concluding that COM is obsolete.
(Later, I discovered that the mainboard actually was equipped with a COM header. I even found an old bracket with both COM and LPT sockets and cables/plugs that fit right onto the headers. That was long after we had solved my friend's problem in other ways.)
My basement is full of old equipment that I keep as a miniature computer museum. I'd sure like to be able to demonstrate it in operation. But for a lot of it, I no longer have an operational PC with the right interface. Maybe I was using a dedicated interface card, but I have operational PC with a matching bus.
In one case (an SPDIF card with both input and output), the manufacturer switched into software-only, low level drivers for other manufacturer's HW - but dropped drivers for their own old HW! So when I updated to WinXP, I lost that card (even though it would still fit on my mainboard).
External media is another thing: I've got floppy disks in four sizes (counting different densities makes it 9). Tape cassettes in four formats. A couple removable hard disk formats. I have operational readers for none of them. I've got documents, videos, sound files and digital photos in several dozen different formats that I may or may not have a reader for. It is like the COM port: I really haven't looked for it for a while.
Such is life, and it is getting sucher and sucher.
CD/DVDs are obsolete; more and more music/movies are unavailable in physical formats. Some of my friends more or less forced me to enable the WiFi in my home - I prefer cabled network, but they couldn't access that from their smartphones and tablets (and, being modern people, they would get mentally sick if they had to abstain from online media for more than a few minutes).
Most devices still have USB ports, though. We'll have to cross our fingers that there won't be a 'D' plug for a few year (I've been through 6 different device-side USB plugs prior to the C plug!). You can buy Ethernet interfaces, CD/DVD readers, 3.5" floppy readers (at least you could - I've got one), sound cards, COM and LPT adapters, MIDI adapters, all-in-one readers for a dozen different memory card formats, and almost anything else you can think of, all with USB interfaces. The only disadvantage is that your (physical) desktop more and more resembles a bowl of spaghetti.
To be honest: If we really could throw out everything from COM/LPT to HDMI, for everything from modems through printers, disks, cameras and displays, and replace it with USB4, I would welcome it! But it won't happen. Major companies will add twists and quirks to ensure that equipment from competing manufacturers won't work with theirs. Academics will argue that swapping the meaning of two bits will improve performance by 0.01%, and this must be adopted even though incompatible (ref. HDLC/SDLC/Tannenbaum). The OSS communities will make their own version to prove that they can do better than any of the six biggest monopolists competing in the field
Today, it looks as if WiFi is The One and Only Solution. (Well, it is actually something like 6 or 8 alternate solutions, but just like USB, quite different alternate technologies are packed under a single hood with a single name, for marketing purposes.) Others will pop up. WiFi won't be The One any more than USB4 will.
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trønderen wrote: Such is life, and it is getting sucher and sucher.
Too true! And just to let you know, I intend to remember (and purloin) your words. 
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Quote: I've got floppy disks in four sizes (counting different densities makes it 9). Tape cassettes in four formats.
Tapes. Impressive.
I've got audio tapes, for the C64, filled with games, including (IIRC) River Raid and Boulder Dash. Too bad that neither the computer, nor the power brick it came with, work anymore. Pretty certain the tape driver still works, but impossible to tell.
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Heh, that brought back memories. I have my VIC-20 and tape drive in a box in the attic. The last time I had it out was 2009, but I was a little amazed to find it still worked then! I was able to read at least some of the stuff on those old tapes. I actually sold my first commercial software for the VIC and the C64 back in the early 80s. "Alarmex" it was called, and was kind of a toy alarm system, a combination of software and hardware that plugged into the joystick port, which I hand-assembled in my kitchen. I ultimately sold 1000 copies of it, wholesale through Protecto Enterprises.
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What is an Attic ?
I would ask where you live but that is being nosey !
I have no basement because you can not dig in the mountains of Arizona
Come to think of it never seen a basement in Phoenix
Perhaps @PIEBALDconsult will comment
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Storage space between the ceiling and roof. Yeah, I used to live in Texas, and no basements where I was there, either. I'm in Illinois now and actually have an attic and a basement, which isn't necessarily a good thing, because it's just more space to accumulate junk. I guess like my old VIC-20! 
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Digging holes in the desert is difficult due to caliche.
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trønderen wrote: Today, it looks as if WiFi is The One and Only Solution.
I've seen software where the manufacturer specifically says not to use wi-fi, only to use wired ethernet, preferably through a built in adapter, so one hopes that the option is still available for some time.
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Um... guess what... optical drives and RJ45s are soooooo yesterday.
Jeremy Falcon
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But I bought two new CDs on Saturday, and the fee for my fiber connection is due today! What should I do???
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Join the rest of us and sell your soul to big tech. Resistance is futile.
Jeremy Falcon
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How old was the laptop you replaced?
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It was purchased in 2019, but was an identical replacement for a much older HP Pavillion of the same design.
Will Rogers never met me.
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Boy you have been under a rock for a bit. There haven't been any cd drives for about a decade and Ethernet ports disappeared about 5 years ago. I know because I run a repair shop and have external cd drives and usb Ethernet ports at the ready for when it is necessary.
Margins are real slim these days so if it isn't necessary to the masses then cry us a river if you miss it.
You can get a usb to slim cd drive adapter cable and pull the dvd drive out of the old pc (undo it's release screw on the bottom of the laptop and pull the drive out), this is what I did for my old dvdless ASUS QL502 i5 laptop.
And you can get usb to Ethernet adapters for a song. You don't even need to sing good.
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Cheaper to produce, probably.
I think you can still get external dvd writers and wouldn't be surprised if you could get a usb to ethernet adapter.
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As a matter of fact, I ordered both today - about $40. 
Will Rogers never met me.
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