Ask HN: What software/program annoys you?
54 comments
All subscription-ware. Applications should be single purchase and done. Services warrant subscriptions. Storage, streaming data, those are services. MS Word is not a service, it's an application. Subscriptions are great for making devs more money while keeping prices down (at any particular moment in time), but then the cost adds up over the years or you choose to not renew and lose access to the application despite having spent tens or even hundreds or thousands of dollars. Fuck that.
A good pseudo-subscription-ware approach is taken by the dev behind Working Copy (git app for iOS and iPadOS). You can get the app which is, IIRC, free. You can optionally pay to upgrade to a pro tier and get access to all features at that time and for some time after. New features are added, some of them go to the base, some go to the pro level. This creates two tiers, and after a year you won't get any more pro features (IIRC, timeframe may be wrong). But you don't lose access to anything you already bought. And eventually (after years) many pro features move back into the base anyways, so unless you want to support the dev or really want a pro feature now, you don't have to pay anything after the first purchase.
A good pseudo-subscription-ware approach is taken by the dev behind Working Copy (git app for iOS and iPadOS). You can get the app which is, IIRC, free. You can optionally pay to upgrade to a pro tier and get access to all features at that time and for some time after. New features are added, some of them go to the base, some go to the pro level. This creates two tiers, and after a year you won't get any more pro features (IIRC, timeframe may be wrong). But you don't lose access to anything you already bought. And eventually (after years) many pro features move back into the base anyways, so unless you want to support the dev or really want a pro feature now, you don't have to pay anything after the first purchase.
> A good pseudo-subscription-ware approach is taken by the dev behind Working Copy
For a more well-known example: I believe JetBrains uses or used a similar model.
For a more well-known example: I believe JetBrains uses or used a similar model.
Python GUI programming/libraries do and have always sucked. My only fond memory in that regard is Java with Swing and LWJGL. Python version/package management. Python package publishing.
Ubuntu is becoming more painful with every version, I remember an optimistic time where fun stuff like wobbly windows were my main concern and only a few clicks away, now I can't even drag and drop stuff within and from my desktop properly. My external microphone doesn't work. Sometimes my computer takes minutes to boot. My speakers don't work. Graphics drivers especially are a pain in the ass, everytime. The printer isn't even detected. And all this on a relatively new device.
Screensharing and setting up remote access sucks, also whoever came up with the 8 character password length limit for VNC deserves a special place in hell (and probably also in the halls of fame in various intelligence agencies).
Websites and OS interfaces that are designed primarily/only for smartphones/tablets, also inconsistent GUI designs, especially Windows can fuck itself in these regards
Anything OAuth related can go fuck itself, I have yet to experience a single API that makes getting credentials trivial
Anything audio configuration related. It should be as visually intuitive as the Blender node editor, yet it is anything but anywhere.
Neural network construction and training data mangling. AutoML can't come soon enough.
Many, many command line programs with completely unintuitive flags/inputs/commands but which like many things in this world will never change because of backward compatibility.
Ubuntu is becoming more painful with every version, I remember an optimistic time where fun stuff like wobbly windows were my main concern and only a few clicks away, now I can't even drag and drop stuff within and from my desktop properly. My external microphone doesn't work. Sometimes my computer takes minutes to boot. My speakers don't work. Graphics drivers especially are a pain in the ass, everytime. The printer isn't even detected. And all this on a relatively new device.
Screensharing and setting up remote access sucks, also whoever came up with the 8 character password length limit for VNC deserves a special place in hell (and probably also in the halls of fame in various intelligence agencies).
Websites and OS interfaces that are designed primarily/only for smartphones/tablets, also inconsistent GUI designs, especially Windows can fuck itself in these regards
Anything OAuth related can go fuck itself, I have yet to experience a single API that makes getting credentials trivial
Anything audio configuration related. It should be as visually intuitive as the Blender node editor, yet it is anything but anywhere.
Neural network construction and training data mangling. AutoML can't come soon enough.
Many, many command line programs with completely unintuitive flags/inputs/commands but which like many things in this world will never change because of backward compatibility.
Javascript.
It's really annoying how so many dynamic websites are just a crap UX, especially on mobile, where a simple form submit or page load would do the job. Sometimes it's supposed to be just a landing page, but some developers find it amazing to control even how I scroll the page. God damn it, let me at least scroll the page like any normal person do!
Something so hard to get done right should be avoided, unless it's really necessary and you have time and talent to implement correctly.
It's really annoying how so many dynamic websites are just a crap UX, especially on mobile, where a simple form submit or page load would do the job. Sometimes it's supposed to be just a landing page, but some developers find it amazing to control even how I scroll the page. God damn it, let me at least scroll the page like any normal person do!
Something so hard to get done right should be avoided, unless it's really necessary and you have time and talent to implement correctly.
I’ll pile on JS as well. I can’t believe that we’ve taken a dubious scripting language and started to use it on the backend, then wrapped multiple layers like Typescript around it to hide how much it sucks.
Also, how many absurd packages do I need? Disk speed shouldn’t be the limiting factor when building an app. Other, more mature, ecosystems don’t have the same security issues either because no one would ever install an entire library to check if something is even or odd or to pad a string.
Also, how many absurd packages do I need? Disk speed shouldn’t be the limiting factor when building an app. Other, more mature, ecosystems don’t have the same security issues either because no one would ever install an entire library to check if something is even or odd or to pad a string.
And read this if you want to cry (or laugh (or both)): https://lwn.net/Articles/681410/
Currently? Microsoft Teams, by a huge margin. I despise using it. I hate everything about it. It gets everything wrong except maybe sending audio data around. Slack is pretty terrible but at least it lets me send a text message to someone without causing me to rip my hair out.
I feel you 100% on this. I wish I could use something like Discord for work as it has nested threads, channels, etc all in an intuitive way.
Right now, my main teams are using "Teams" instead of Chat and everything is so painful to have a discussion.
Right now, my main teams are using "Teams" instead of Chat and everything is so painful to have a discussion.
1Password. They've taken a fantastic password manager and are slowly moving it to a subscription-based product. They're slapping in the face the very users that helped them get to where they are and are removing local vault syncing with the new 1Password 8. Now I'm faced with the choice to not continue updating the apps (which, if I do so in iOS, I'm screwed because I won't be able to downgrade it) or to start using a new password syncing solution.
1password is best used with a free, lifetime account.
It takes little time and effort to change your passwords manager.
Microsoft Teams.
One of the worst (laggy, buggy, slow, bad UI, etc.) peaces of software I used ever, combined with aggressive promotion by M$. Moreover, I have to use this crap at work every day, since my employer bought a license, which makes things even worse.
One of the worst (laggy, buggy, slow, bad UI, etc.) peaces of software I used ever, combined with aggressive promotion by M$. Moreover, I have to use this crap at work every day, since my employer bought a license, which makes things even worse.
Kubectl. The amount of keystrokes required to do anything is exhausting, particularly between namespaces. Managing the config file if you have multiple clusters is also a pain.
Teams. Microsoft can buy as many chat/telecom services as they want and keep folding them in, but it’s not going to make it better. Such a quirky hodgepodge that I loathe every day.
iOS and MacOS both seem to keep getting buggier without adding a single feature I care about.
And as someone else said, Windows search. I’m trying to find an app by name, but somehow you can never locate it until I get the full name exactly right?
Teams. Microsoft can buy as many chat/telecom services as they want and keep folding them in, but it’s not going to make it better. Such a quirky hodgepodge that I loathe every day.
iOS and MacOS both seem to keep getting buggier without adding a single feature I care about.
And as someone else said, Windows search. I’m trying to find an app by name, but somehow you can never locate it until I get the full name exactly right?
Outlook. Good God do I hate Outlook. Since I started working at my current company, I always wondered why searching through like 2GB of mail in Outlook was slower than searching through +15GB of mail in Gmail. Drove me insane.
I have recently set up mbsync and notmuch, along with emacs integration, and now I have practically instantaneous full-text email search. I still use Outlook to read and write mail but don't worry, we will fix that soon.
I could go on (plugins are broken on macOS, inflexible UI, etc) but it was mostly the search.
I have recently set up mbsync and notmuch, along with emacs integration, and now I have practically instantaneous full-text email search. I still use Outlook to read and write mail but don't worry, we will fix that soon.
I could go on (plugins are broken on macOS, inflexible UI, etc) but it was mostly the search.
Windows Search. Twenty years have passed and every computer I have ever used (including every Microsoft Surface device) has become unusable when Windows Search Indexer runs.
Windows Search Indexer needs to die in a fire. Windows Search's default refusal to search various logical places for an EXE or DLL blows, and it's complete inability to filter a folder's small filelist to just the one relevant file without running a spinner animation and making you wait seconds is dainbramage.
VoidTools Everything finds filenames instantly as I type, using the NTFS filesystem data instead of batch-scanning like Windows Search does. It optionally index NTFS drives across the network.
It won't search inside files, and it has a few little things that annoy me (like no obvious keyboard way to switch filetype filters), but overall, I wish it were the default search.
VoidTools Everything finds filenames instantly as I type, using the NTFS filesystem data instead of batch-scanning like Windows Search does. It optionally index NTFS drives across the network.
It won't search inside files, and it has a few little things that annoy me (like no obvious keyboard way to switch filetype filters), but overall, I wish it were the default search.
SharePoint Online. I hate the UI/UX (coming from SP2013 and SP2016). The default themes are flat and un-intuitive.
Microsoft Teams, which is a resource-hogging mess of an IM/document-sharing app. Where I work they use Teams Groups to control permissions groups in SPO (but not ALL of the permissions groups), and somehow I don't have complete visibility on the SPO group controls even though I'm the administrator for them.
C2PC (something I think only one other HN'er has heard of). This is a shitty GIS app for the Marine Corps. It crashes regularly, can't handle displaying the positions of thousands of units/vehicles, has a GUI from the late 90's......and is made by the exact same company that makes the far superior app that performs the same function for the rest of the DoD (Agile Client, both produced by Northrup Grumman). It needs to die in a fire. The web client is also features-poor and unstable. The small set of useful features should be replicated by extension modules for Agile Client.
https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/land/command-and-...
Microsoft Teams, which is a resource-hogging mess of an IM/document-sharing app. Where I work they use Teams Groups to control permissions groups in SPO (but not ALL of the permissions groups), and somehow I don't have complete visibility on the SPO group controls even though I'm the administrator for them.
C2PC (something I think only one other HN'er has heard of). This is a shitty GIS app for the Marine Corps. It crashes regularly, can't handle displaying the positions of thousands of units/vehicles, has a GUI from the late 90's......and is made by the exact same company that makes the far superior app that performs the same function for the rest of the DoD (Agile Client, both produced by Northrup Grumman). It needs to die in a fire. The web client is also features-poor and unstable. The small set of useful features should be replicated by extension modules for Agile Client.
https://www.northropgrumman.com/what-we-do/land/command-and-...
Everything Apple except for the base MacOS operating system. The App Store, iTunes/Music, Finder, Safari, xcode, the list goes on. It all feels so sluggish and unresponsive and bloated. I love their hardware, but despise their software.
Audio I/O on Linux, specifically PulseAudio and JACK. It's a disaster compared to CoreAudio and WASAPI. Maybe pipewire won't suck and break regularly, but I doubt it.
Anything that uses YAML for starters. It's just too damn easy to accidentally have something indented wrongly by a single space or tab or whatever, and have the whole thing blow up in your face. It makes working with Kubernetes and Ansible a royal pain at times.
Not a fan of Outlook either. Reason #1 - the search capability blows.
And then I'll add OS X. I use a Mac at work for a couple of specific reasons, but on balance I'm not a fan of OS X. I'd much rather use KDE on Linux, but our options here are Windows or Mac. :-(
Not a fan of Outlook either. Reason #1 - the search capability blows.
And then I'll add OS X. I use a Mac at work for a couple of specific reasons, but on balance I'm not a fan of OS X. I'd much rather use KDE on Linux, but our options here are Windows or Mac. :-(
YAML is a superset of JSON, so anything that consumes YAML can parse JSON if you prefer this format.
Yeah YAML is great for visualizing data structures, not good for creating them
Corporations crippling their platform to sell more products is my pet peeve. Apple is the worst for this.
Also, why is it still so hard to transfer a file from mobile to desktop across platforms.
Also, why is it still so hard to transfer a file from mobile to desktop across platforms.
Apple Music. It opens automatically on my computer every time I take off my Airpods to put them in the case. There is no way to prevent this without hacking my computer.
I do not use Apple Music on my work machine and never will. It's a daily reminder (multiple times) about how annoying Apple has become over the years. Not to mention that the program itself is a terrible version of something that was really good a decade or two ago.
I do not use Apple Music on my work machine and never will. It's a daily reminder (multiple times) about how annoying Apple has become over the years. Not to mention that the program itself is a terrible version of something that was really good a decade or two ago.
I used to love iTunes in its earlier incarnations. It progressively got dumbed down to where it's at now. I can get some of the browser pane views back, but I've long given up on it as my music collection interface.
Adobe Creative Cloud
Apple Podcasts app. It keeps changing and changing and never ending up in a holistically usable state. Most of it is good but then you lose your queue or can’t restart what you were listing to without going into the app or it keeps picking some random podcast to load when you open it. Also, it’s a constant struggle to figure out if a tap opens an episode? Or plays it? Or opens the show? It looks great, you can find new stuff pretty easily, and the IA is good but, day to day, it’s a complete PITA.
Zoho CRM and Zoho Invoice. Deluge, their scripting language is obtuse and their REST API docs stay wrong or out of date for months at a time.
I could go on but the killer paper cut with that software is the abysmal in built reporting tools and the equally absurd limitations on how much of your own data you can export before they start charging you.
For reference, we pay 35 dollars per user per month. We are still price sensitive so Salesforce or others aren't real options yet.
I could go on but the killer paper cut with that software is the abysmal in built reporting tools and the equally absurd limitations on how much of your own data you can export before they start charging you.
For reference, we pay 35 dollars per user per month. We are still price sensitive so Salesforce or others aren't real options yet.
Word annoys me every day, it frequently tries to be too smart and does unexpected (too me) things. I can live with both Excel and Visio.
California Has Ruled It Illegal To Conceal A Company’s JIRA Subscription For The Purpose Of Attracting Engineers
(From @HackerNewsOnion)
(From @HackerNewsOnion)
I thought of another one: Microsoft Editor (their grammar checker) and the like. I’ve been a native English speaker for almost 40 years now, but it constantly wants to make me sound like an emotionless robot.
1Password's UI, particularly its terribly keyboard navigability.
D3.js
Horrendous documentation. Requires an intermediate- to advanced-level knowledge of JavaScript. Not easy to use with popular frameworks.
Horrendous documentation. Requires an intermediate- to advanced-level knowledge of JavaScript. Not easy to use with popular frameworks.
My Corsair mouse driver that needs 250+ megs of memory.
You run it still..?
What is the alternative?
Mice shouldn't require drivers.
My 18 button mmorpg mouse is fully USB hid compliant.
My 18 button mmorpg mouse is fully USB hid compliant.
It has pulsing LED lights that turn back on whenever I restart or log out. Does HID have a way to control them?
tar especially the gnu variant:
https://xkcd.com/1168/
https://xkcd.com/1168/
I learned the mnemonic "Compress ze files" for tar -czf and "Xtract ze files" for tar -xzf. Also netstat -plant for showing occupied ports.
>netstat
Hahah same
-tulpn ;)
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=tulpen
Hahah same
-tulpn ;)
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=tulpen
Anything made by Atlassian
Oh Jira, why do I hate you so much, you bloated monstrosity?
Slack. We've gone from terminal IRC clients running on practically no memory, to shipping entire Chrome/Electron installations that allow you to conveniently log in with a button that opens your real Chrome browser, so that you can go back to Electron and accomplish the exact same things IRC did, except with slower load times, frequent service outages, eternally shifting UIs and redesigns, memory footprints that stretch even a 16GB system, and creative reinterpretations of the input field widget.
Oh. And emoji.
Too bad systems for globally coordinating the development of software never existed in the past. I wonder where we would be without Slack.
Oh. And emoji.
Too bad systems for globally coordinating the development of software never existed in the past. I wonder where we would be without Slack.
I agree with the sentiment about Slack being slow and bad. It’s not exactly the same as IRC though. There’s voice chat, screensharing, I can drag and drop video files without worrying about hosting, etc. People choose Slack over IRC for a reason, it’s just too bad it’s a private centralized thing written as a resource hogging electron behemoth.
> People choose Slack over IRC for a reason
because they don't know tech.
because they don't know tech.
Plenty of people who "know tech" chose Slack. Don't give them a pass.
Where would we be? Still slapping each other with large trout.
/me larts @6stringmerc with a very large trout.
Wait until you start using Teams...
Atlassian would like a word with you about bloat and garbage functionality supremacy.
Yeah been there and being there too. I'm kinda used to confluence finally because nothing else beats it yet.
Maybe a program that couldn't be uninstalled properly?
Bad user interface?
A overall good program but a niche feature that you need isn't developed properly?