How many monitors can I plug into my Mac, anyway?

One of the Mac’s greatest long-term advantages has been the ease of attaching external monitors. The attachment connector type, resolutions supported, and total quantity has varied over time, but it’s a persistently easy task.Or at least it was! Over the last six years, Apple introduced USB 3 over USB-C (12-inch MacBook, now discontinued), Thunderbolt 3, which uses USB-C (and supports many kinds of adapters), and the Apple silicon M1 processor models. Some Macs have or still include