Products · Product
Plan 9
Raised as a usability problem by 21 people on Hacker News over 16 years (2009–2024), in 22 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 29 complaints
- No tab completion, so typing is error-prone and editing needs mouse to reposition cursor2024-07-28
- Easy to mess up mouse button chords with little feedback, and hard to remember2023-06-21
- Plan 9 was unusable as a day-to-day environment2023-06-21
- Couldn't figure out how to chord on a laptop trackpad2023-04-28
- Lacks syntax highlighting and auto-delimiters, making HTML and LaTeX editing painful2023-04-28
- UI is deeply arcane and unfamiliar to people used to modern GUIs2022-11-01
- Requires a three-button mouse, became unbearably obtuse on a laptop2022-10-25
- Seems much harder to work with than curl for simple and advanced HTTP use2022-09-28
- Commenter finds Plan 9 completely inscrutable and unusable2022-08-26
- Requires a three button mouse, so it is hard to use on a modern laptop without modifier key workarounds2021-10-06
- Needs three-button mouse, so laptops require awkward modifier key workarounds2021-10-06
- Lacks good keyboard features, which is infuriating to use2021-01-15
- Unusable without a three-button mouse2020-08-08
- Mouse-based navigation makes users watch the cursor and feel frustrated compared to clicking directly2019-12-18
- Keyboard workflow is lacking and infuriating for Vim users2019-12-05
- Three-button chorded mouse input makes it impossible to use on modern laptops2019-12-05
- Plan 9 requires a three-button mouse, which laptop trackpads cannot provide naturally2017-06-11
- Man pages are so comprehensive that reading them is daunting and unnecessary2015-03-09
- Very hard to use for general work or web browsing2014-12-08
- Three-button mouse scheme is awkward and unintuitive for users2014-12-08
- Needs a rare 3-button mouse and can't log in via terminal, forcing the UI2014-12-01
- Chorded three-button mouse input is hard to use, and touchpads are nearly unusable2014-12-01
- Couldn't figure out how to open a shell in the window manager2014-11-24
- Couldn't figure out how to open a shell or use the text editor2014-11-24
- Creating a new window requires an unfamiliar sweep gesture unlike other systems2014-09-30
- No easy way to recall previous commands or search history, unlike bash2014-02-14
- Plan 9 installation in VirtualBox or VMware runs extremely slowly, taking hours2012-10-24
- Chording on the mouse wheel is error prone, so it demands a three-button mouse2012-08-19
- Plan 9's user interface is weird and hard to get used to2009-01-24