This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/opensource by /u/CAzkKoqarJFg6SzH on 2025-08-30 23:44:18+00:00.
A couple of months ago, I launched a simple macOS utility to solve a personal frustration: the USB-C cable mess. All the cables look The same, all the speeds and capabilities are different. My app reads the data from IOKit to instantly show the negotiated speed of any connected device, so you can tell if your “10Gbps” cable is actually just a slow cable in disguise. I know this data is already available in System Information, but I found myself opening it too often. To my surprise, the app became very successful on the Mac App Store, telling me a lot of people have this problem!
The thing is, my day job is a Linux Ubuntu machine. I wanted the same utility for my work setup, and I wanted to approach it with a different philosophy that fits the Linux ecosystem.
I’ve built a Linux version from the ground up, and I’ve released it as a fully free open-source project on GitHub.
It provides the same core functionality, but on Linux Machines:
- Reads from usb-devices to show device speed and version.
- Pulls power delivery information.
- Translates technical IDs into user-friendly names.
While the Mac app is a commercial product to support its development, I wanted this version to be a contribution to the community that builds the tools I rely on every day. You can check out the full source code, contribute, or just grab the app from the
GitHub repo here:
github.com/…/usb-connection-information-menubar-l…
I’d love to get your feedback, pull requests, or just hear your thoughts on it.