Oracle

Raised as a usability problem by 68 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 61 threads.

People raised many different problems with Oracle, 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 50 complaints

Every button click takes seconds of waiting, worse when going back steps2026-06-10
Must pick matching x86 or x64 architecture across build and deployment, and people forget2025-11-12
Rejecting all cookies makes the site take minutes to come back2025-07-20
Course registration is poorly designed and unintuitive for students2024-09-18
Oracle's limitations forced months of wasted dev time adapting application code2024-06-12
Table creation modal is cramped; column name and data type fields get partially hidden2024-06-05
Can't create an account and must verify email again for every job application2024-05-05
UI components are wrongly sized, standard form controls missing, and laggy2024-02-23
Multiple installers with cryptic names scattered across CD, unclear which to run2023-05-25
Account sign-in keeps getting stuck at various points in the process2023-01-24
Developers spent a whole summer with support just getting a Hello World app working2022-12-16
Console only runs in an old IE on a Windows XP VM; new version unusable due to bugs and performance2022-12-16
Can't find terms of service or EULA; no legal or terms link at the bottom2022-08-02
Generic error message gives no clue what went wrong and sends users elsewhere2022-08-02
Nearly impossible to figure out what is wrong when it breaks2022-06-21
Sign-in form breaks, cards rejected, and email confirmation takes 10+ minutes2022-04-15
Cancelling requires long phone waits, being transferred repeatedly, and unanswered online support2022-04-14
Basic documentation was utterly useless to the commenter, so Java modules were hard to learn2021-09-12
Oracle documentation is so bad compared to Postgres's2021-09-10
SQL error messages are poor, with Oracle's the worst2021-09-10
Installer needs patches and rule syntax is undocumented and wrong in manual2021-09-10
Mounting extra volumes requires copying many manual commands after attaching them2021-07-24
UI looks horrific and doesn't adapt to modern monitor resolutions and aspect ratios2021-02-19
Only a few people could master it, so others had to phone experts for ad-hoc queries2021-02-19
Dated, inconsistent interfaces with poor discoverability cause newcomers to make expensive mistakes2021-02-18
Software manuals are described as poorly designed, making the product hard to understand2021-02-18
Oracle product user interface has serious UX problems that go unfixed2021-02-18
Table cells too small for their content, and the table can't be resized2021-02-18
Opening a support ticket takes a lot of work2020-09-26
Installing Oracle database and BI tools is extremely difficult and takes hours2020-09-14
Users waited 5+ seconds after every keypress when navigating menus2020-06-07
Generating new IDs needed a counter, increment and read, unlike MySQL's autoincrement2020-04-29
Input boxes act as buttons, tabs trigger random actions, many nested modal dialogs2020-02-05
Simple tasks like paying someone become hostile due to process complexity2020-02-05
Legacy ERP systems are hard to use correctly, producing error-ridden data2020-01-16
Users suffer a clumsy Java applet UI and inscrutable query tools for decades2020-01-16
Oracle's developer tools and management interfaces are horrendous to use2019-10-15
Developers must wrap or heavily customise repository dictionaries before they can use them2019-10-15
Encryption silently failed to store keys in the wallet, locking the user out of data2019-05-11
Type is a footgun that users will likely misuse2019-03-31
Counter-intuitive, nearly unusable interface with inscrutable UI in its applets and HTML screens2019-03-23
Oracle's enterprise finance UI is hard to learn and use2019-03-11
Java licensing terms are buried across documents and hard to locate2018-10-15
Cookie pop-up is slow to load and submit, with 67 checkboxes and no defaults2018-09-18
Interface is cluttered across many workflows and slow to complete the most common tasks2018-09-14
Hard to contact sites about docs; needed accounts, tickets, or only social media2018-08-04
User cannot find the Java download button on Oracle's website2018-06-08
Endeca is a nightmare to work with; its Flash-based business UI is hard to use2018-05-22
Oracle's GUIs are confusing and hostile to beginners, cutting off users who try to touch them2018-05-22
Connection string was almost impossible to figure out; client library loads slowly2018-05-22