Products · Product
.NET
Raised as a usability problem by 203 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 159 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Similar .NET and .NET Framework names cause years of confusionUnreviewed
20092026- Confusing product names because ASP is branded rather than descriptive2024-08-31
- Confusing naming of .NET and .NET Framework causes years of confusion2024-07-02
- Confusing mix of .NET names and versions makes it a headache to navigate2024-04-15
Outdated docs and templates differ from current .NET 6 practiceUnreviewed
20092026- Modern .NET is overly complex and much harder for beginners to learn2024-11-11
- Steep learning curve; outdated docs and templates differ from current .NET 6 practice2023-02-14
- Documentation is hard to use and confusing across separate .NET versions2021-11-15
Visual Studio and dotnet CLI force repeated re-downloads and confusing setupUnreviewed
20092026- Visual Studio build fails and needs command-line dotnet restore and build to work2026-05-08
- Obscure build errors and wrong package versions when referencing .NET Standard in .NET Framework2021-06-19
- Shared .NET Standard projects sometimes fail with obscure build errors and wrong assembly versions2021-06-18
Can't tell whether the telemetry opt-out variable workedUnreviewed
20092026- Telemetry is on by default, and opting out requires setting an environment variable2023-02-17
- Opting out requires setting an environment variable; no simple registry or settings option2018-05-29
- Can't tell whether the telemetry opt-out environment variable actually worked2018-05-29
Documentation has lots of volume but little structure, hard to navigateUnreviewed
20092026- Guides are a laughably simple eight pages; documentation is buzzword-filled and confusing for new developers2024-10-18
- Documentation has lots of volume but almost no structure, hard to navigate2022-03-12
- Documentation and REST API project structure are confusing and hard to get through2019-07-07
Hard to tell which .NET is cross-platform and which supports Windows desktopUnreviewed
20092026- Can't tell which .NET parts work outside Windows; overall confusing2022-03-06
- Confusing which .NET is cross-platform and which has Windows desktop support2018-05-07
- Cross-platform .NET is a confusing mishmash of concepts and implementations2016-12-16
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
- Confusing naming for new versions and frequent deprecation of older ones2026-09-15
- Exceptions and thread-safety must be checked via docs, making errors harder to catch2026-07-09
- Deployment and packaging is a mess, needing undocumented CLI commands and obscure XML2026-05-23
- Hot reload fails often, forcing developers to manually restart the dev process2026-05-12
- Hard to tell whether a project is Framework or Core from its files2026-05-12
- Developer tooling is annoying to use2026-05-08
- Visual Studio build fails and needs command-line dotnet restore and build to work2026-05-08
- Crashes and heisenbugs make it virtually unusable on non-sanctioned Linux distributions2026-04-08
- Too many overlapping build commands and outdated docs make it hard to know what to use2026-02-08
- Click-drag to move tiles works inconsistently, with no click feedback and teleporting tiles2025-11-12
- Installing it took 2-3 hours and basic UI features weren't supported2025-11-12
- Couldn't find a reliable debugger to spin up without a full IDE2025-11-12
- After clicking back from the word puzzle, the whole screen locks and nothing is clickable2025-11-12
- Apps built with it feel slow, alien-looking, with annoying animations and phone-style UX2025-11-12
- Pressing back in the demo on Android leaves the whole app and returns to the previous website2025-11-12
- Sliding puzzle needs multiple tries, back arrow stops working, pickers are finicky2025-11-12
- Docs are awful; users must dig through outdated Xamarin docs and trial-and-error2025-11-12
- Basic things like changing toolbar colors or putting non-text content in buttons are very hard2025-11-12
- Debugging got stuck behind paid support calls with Microsoft engineers2025-11-12
- Canvas rendering makes apps inaccessible and gives poor user experience2025-11-12
- Replacement ERP is slow and terrible to navigate; views run long sequential queries2025-11-05
- Cross compilation is slow and opaque, making iOS app debugging nearly impossible2025-09-24
- Runtimes, API surfaces and Core vs Framework became extremely confusing to navigate2025-03-11
- Hard to find the correct .NET install page; Windows page has many confusing tabs2025-01-08
- Hard to customize native controls, such as removing the default Entry underline2024-11-13
- Modern .NET is overly complex and much harder for beginners to learn2024-11-11
- Opt-out setting gets overridden after updates and gives no confirmation it worked2024-11-04
- Docs are exhaustive but boring and poorly explained for first-time learners2024-10-18
- Guides are a laughably simple eight pages; documentation is buzzword-filled and confusing for new developers2024-10-18
- Hot reload often fails, making development iteration slow2024-09-18
- Confusing product names because ASP is branded rather than descriptive2024-08-31
- Search results rarely show which .NET version an answer was built for2024-08-28
- Install process unclear on Linux, and docs split across two sites2024-08-07
- So hard to use correctly that programs built on it end up with bugs2024-07-24
- Docs load slowly and often show a 'back soon' message on page loads2024-07-11
- Confusing naming of .NET and .NET Framework causes years of confusion2024-07-02
- Confusing mix of .NET names and versions makes it a headache to navigate2024-04-15
- Didn't know clicking the dollar amount updates value; expected it in the edit modal2024-04-09
- Deploy fails outside C:\ drive with an error that doesn't say what's wrong2023-11-25
- Cross-platform UI framework is messy and hard to program2023-11-14
- Installer is monstrous and hard to get through2023-11-14
- Too many confusing template options with unclear marketing make it hard to choose2023-11-14
- Too many overlapping .NET names and versions, so it's confusing which to use2023-11-14
- Commands are inconsistent, sometimes buggy, and full of edge cases2023-11-05
- Console clear and drawing functions don't work on Linux, forcing workarounds2023-10-03
- Docs full of sales pitches and omit the APIs developers need2023-10-03
- Build errors are weird and hard to make sense of2023-09-27
- Can't find a compile-to-object command; build driven by monolithic csproj file2023-05-26
- Creating a bare HTTP server is hard; everything is tied to ASP.NET2023-03-21
- Telemetry is on by default, and opting out requires setting an environment variable2023-02-17