Products · Broad category
Modern operating systems
Raised as a usability problem by 26 people on Hacker News over 15 years (2012–2026), in 28 threads.
This is a broad category rather than one product, so its issues aren't ranked on the home page.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
OS responds to input more slowly than older systemsUnreviewed
20122026- Modern OS feels slower and less consistent in its interface than classic Mac OS2024-04-29
- Modern OS is slow to respond to input, feeling laggier than older systems2022-12-27
- Modern OS interface feels slower to respond than old Windows 98 machines2022-12-14
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 28 complaints
- Modern OS interfaces are cluttered with bells and whistles, practically unusable2026-07-05
- Commenter finds modern OS and website interfaces bloated with bad UI2026-06-16
- Users must guess whether icons are clickable or interactions are possible2026-05-12
- Key functionality hidden behind layers of confusing menus2025-03-30
- Modern OS feels slower and less consistent in its interface than classic Mac OS2024-04-29
- Do not disturb doesn't carry over; each app must be switched individually, so colleagues still see you as available2024-04-25
- Constant interface changes add cognitive load and break learned familiarity2023-12-06
- Modern operating systems have user-hostile patterns that make them harder to use.2023-09-13
- Commenter finds modern Windows window management more egregious and unusable than Windows 95 style2023-07-30
- Unpredictable lockups make keystrokes dropped or duplicated, so users can't tell whether to keep typing2023-06-24
- Users must blindly bump into UI walls to learn the OS, and UI changes break learned habits2022-12-28
- Modern OS is slow to respond to input, feeling laggier than older systems2022-12-27
- Modern OS interface feels slower to respond than old Windows 98 machines2022-12-14
- Windows and apps hang for seconds, interrupting typing and window switching2022-10-05
- Constant unrequested interface changes get in the way of getting work done2022-09-06
- Related information like contacts, projects and notes is split across non-integrated apps, causing duplication2022-03-27
- Submenus disappear when the mouse strays a couple pixels off course2022-03-14
- Submenus are finicky, and a small mouse slip loses the whole drill-down2022-03-14
- Security prompts create a usability nightmare that users work around anyway2022-02-05
- Input latency is noticeably worse than on older systems2021-10-15
- Interfaces are neither intuitive for beginners nor powerful for experts2020-12-12
- Modern OSes feel sluggish and unresponsive despite fast hardware2020-12-11
- Modern systems respond slowly to mouse clicks due to layers of API cruft2020-09-02
- No easy way to chain applications, so automation is impossible for most people2020-06-28
- Bloated UI and clicks sent to the cloud make the OS worse2019-08-21
- Apps and programs take ridiculously long to launch or open on HDDs2019-01-23
- Modern UIs don't remember folder window positions, sizes, or view settings, so users struggle2017-05-12
- Hidden drive directories and scattered user folders make folder structure confusing2012-07-26