Plans for Thunderbolt and Lion?

[lightfoot256]

Hi,

I'm looking for a multi monitor solution for my 2011 Macbook Pro and keep hitting this brick wall that I either chose to drop nearly 2k on some thunderbolt displays throwing away all my existing kit (while having no compatibility with my existing kit) or buying an intermediary usb solution that apparently has issues with Lion and _still_ has Beta drivers.

Considering Lion was released over 6 months ago is there some fundamental reason why Lion support is so unstable (considering the Mac hardware landscape is so much more limited than the PC market ) is it apple's fault? is it a money issue? are apple just not being helpful? what it is? It seems like all the people who are on board with thunderbolt are producing devices just fine and everybody else is just sat out in the dark either purposefully ignoring the technology or there's some other underlying reason why they're not allowed to use it.

As a long time developer and computer user I must say the last couple of years have been the worst for choice; the middle ground seems to have completely disappeared.

* Why isn't there a thunderbolt -> dvi/hdmi adapter (with thunderbolt pass through)

* Why isn't there a thunderbolt adapter with 2, 3, 4, 6 dvi/hdmi ports?

* If displayLink supports up to 6? 8? devices per system why isn't there a box with a single/multiple/usb's and multiple video outputs? again, 2, 3, 4, 6 outputs?

* Why is there limited knowledge on whether displayLink works via a hub? or approved hubs?

If you can daisy chain two thunderbolt displays then there is obviously a solution so I'm curious as to why DisplayLink hasn't produced a product for this market yet; surely the bandwidth on Thunderbolt is insanely better than that of USB2; Is it a licensing issue? is it a money issue? Is it just a pride issue? Whatever it is there are large numbers of users out there that want to have multiple screens and no one provider that has a solution -- except Apple.

Maybe I've missed something but I've got to the point now that I've wasted too much time looking for a viable solution and hoping the landscape changes; I want to know why things are the way there are and if possible help towards making it better. Maybe I should apply for a Job at DisplayLink and sort out their Lion Drivers... I am a software developer after all...