Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Hidden files
Raised as a usability problem by 4 people on Hacker News over 7 years (2020–2026), in 3 threads.
People raised many different problems with Hidden files, but no single problem has yet been raised by 3 people in 3 different months and threads.
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 4 complaints
- Home directory cluttered with dozens of hidden config files, hard to manage2026-04-26
- Hidden files make folders look empty and confuse users about contents and free space2022-10-24
- Hidden dotfiles make directories look empty and hard to edit, such as .env files2022-10-24
- Hidden UI elements have obscure ways to restore them, so users get stuck2020-04-17