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?
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.
For a more well-known example: I believe JetBrains uses or used a similar model.
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.
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.
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.
Right now, my main teams are using "Teams" instead of Chat and everything is so painful to have a discussion.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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-...
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. :-(
Also, why is it still so hard to transfer a file from mobile to desktop across platforms.
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 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.
(From @HackerNewsOnion)
Horrendous documentation. Requires an intermediate- to advanced-level knowledge of JavaScript. Not easy to use with popular frameworks.
My 18 button mmorpg mouse is fully USB hid compliant.
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.
because they don't know tech.