Products · Product
elementary OS
Raised as a usability problem by 78 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 35 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 50 complaints
- Later versions feel laggy to interact with after the Ubuntu base upgrade2026-03-20
- Software Center updates fail and force dropping to the command line2025-10-12
- Icons feel finicky and laggy when interacted with2025-09-04
- Every new release requires a complete reinstall, making upgrades very user-unfriendly2024-08-08
- Window maximize and minimize behave in a way the commenter finds weird2023-01-31
- Upgrading to a new version requires a full reinstall, wiping everything and restoring it2023-01-31
- Constant 'are you sure' confirmation dialogs and a pay-to-download prompt make installing software tedious2023-01-31
- Donation prompt is a dark pattern that pushes users to pay2023-01-31
- Hamburger menus replace menubars, so the central index of app functions is harder to find2023-01-25
- Author found its usability and customizability notably poor and its UI annoying2022-05-31
- Interface described as impossible to understand, referring to Metro UI2022-04-02
- Apps like Dropbox client can't be accessed because tray icons aren't supported2022-03-09
- UI feels clunky and almost unresponsive compared to similar desktops2022-03-09
- Default settings and UX feel clunky and worse than macOS2022-03-09
- Audio spontaneously mutes, and user must hunt through volume controls to unmute2021-12-21
- No supported upgrade; users must back up and fully reinstall2021-12-20
- Music app keeps reloading all songs from a network drive library2021-12-20
- Folders open on single click but files need double click, so you can't open a file the way you open a folder2021-12-20
- Apps found there are unusable or lack functionality compared to alternatives2021-12-20
- Critical display settings like fractional DPI are missing, forcing users into dconf editor to make screen readable2021-11-06
- Alt-Tab window switching behaves in a way that causes usability problems2021-08-10
- Apps not made by Elementary look totally different, so the experience is inconsistent2021-08-10
- Missing minimize button frustrates the user, who can't minimize windows easily2021-08-10
- Tabs look detached from the content they belong to, making them hard to associate2021-08-10
- Missing minimize button and less functional native apps frustrate desktop use2021-08-10
- Keyboard shortcuts, drag-and-drop, menus and app interoperability feel distracting and frustrating versus macOS2021-08-10
- UI described as unnecessarily heavy and app-centric, requiring workarounds2021-08-10
- Scaling the UI on a 4K monitor costs performance and sharpness2021-05-01
- No fractional display scaling by default, making the desktop unusable for the commenter2021-05-01
- Took a very long time to connect Bluetooth headphones2021-04-01
- Connecting headphones freezes most of the UI for a minute or two2020-10-15
- UI scaling is too small, making the laptop screen hard to read or judge2019-12-08
- System feels incredibly slow to interact with2019-12-06
- Microphone doesn't work and the whole system feels incredibly slow2019-12-06
- Window buttons and file selection work differently than expected, making the UX feel weird2018-11-19
- Modern desktop UIs make it hard to get tasks done2018-11-17
- Mail client breaks every time the user tries to send notes while away2018-11-17
- All UI controls look identical plain gray rectangles, so users can't tell what is what2018-11-17
- Taskbar and file manager icons are misaligned, inconsistently sized, and hard to read2018-11-17
- Alt-Tab window switching behaves strangely and awkwardly2018-11-17
- A user action's clickable hitbox is only one pixel wide, hard to hit2018-11-17
- Has been unusable for years until version 5 arrived2018-11-17
- Qt apps need an environment variable and a hidden checkbox to scale properly2018-11-16
- Cannot switch keyboard layout per window, breaking bilingual workflow2018-11-16
- No minimize button, and the hidden key can't be enabled, forcing a workflow2018-11-16
- Can't switch networks from the WiFi dropdown; must open network manager to scan2018-11-16
- Keyboard screenshot and hotkey setup have been broken for a year2017-09-14
- No visible option to add a subtitles file in the video player2017-01-30
- Almost no menus, so heavy keyboard shortcut users can't discover shortcuts2017-01-29
- No minimize button; hiding windows forces closing them, so state resume makes hiding unreliable2017-01-29