The Most Annoying Software Out There 885
superglaze writes "ZDNet UK has a very entertaining round-up of the most annoying software out there, and everything from RealPlayer and Adobe Reader to Java and Norton Antivirus gets a kicking. 'The internet has brought us many joys. It's rewritten the rules of business and pleasure. And pain. For it allows what may have seemed like bright ideas at the time ('let's use it to make sure our customers have the latest software', for example) to turn into a stinking pit of misery — usually, but by no means always, after marketing gets its fangs in.'"
Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Informative)
And I agree with most of these, particularly Apple. I recently spent several hours trying to remove Quicktime from my system and replace it with Quicktime alternative. I had to go in and hand edit the registry. The damn program was incidious about wriggling it's way back into my system tray and running processes if every single reference to it wasn't removed from the registry. That will be the last piece of Apple software I ever install on my system.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Informative)
That's right. If you delete qttray, Quicktime opens its maw and barfs up a new version of it. Then it turns it on and puts it back in the task tray.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Insightful)
Make Microsoft Look Good day? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Make Microsoft Look Good day? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Make Microsoft Look Good day? (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember recently here someone telling me how Apple just works, and insisting that my PC would always distract me, or be "noisy" (I'm not quite sure what he meant), giving examples such as watching a DVD. Needless to say, he didn't believe me when I told him my PC just worked too (and does more than simply working).
But funnily enough, the next day I did have distractions when trying to view a video - because it was a quicktime movie, and I couldn't get it to do basic functionality, such as full screen mode. So I have to concede he was right after all - my computer doesn't just work, when it's running Apple software at least.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Interesting)
Leopard I hate you!
I have ubuntu at home, I have Vista at home, they make me use a MBP with Leopard at work. Vista, most likely due to it no having to connect to any sort of server, works beautifully. It runs on a many year old Dell 8300 Dimension, streams netflix to the TV, acts as a home office computer and I re-boot it once every 3 weeks, not because it needs to, but because I feel like I should. Ubuntu is on an old Dell 1100 Inspiron upstairs, it acts as my streaming jukebox from my network drive and on-site webbrowser, so we don't have to go downstairs to the mancave or open the work laptops. My work laptop, with Leopard, is the most unstable, constantly updating, out of control, mind-of-it's-own POS that I've ever worked with. Now don't get me wrong, I love the interface, Apple got this OSX thing right, but the machinations underneath the surface just ruin the experience. Most times I 'sleep' the computer I need to restart. Multiple monitors at work? I need to restart. Two days of intense document construction? "Out of memory" and I need to restart. After 2 days the cursor becomes jumpy, I need to restart and the list goes on and on and on. I would like the OSX inteface on a computer that lets me work, using simple productivity packages, day after day after day with no failures - is that too much to ask Apple?
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:4, Informative)
May I suggest that this may be a hardware issue? I run a MBP with Leopard and have had none of these problems. In fact multiple monitors is one of the great things about running a Mac :) It just works, and it remembers all your settings to boot. Connect it to your work external monitor and blam, one desktop, connect to home, blam, another. I've also seen problems on MacBook hinges that prevent proper sleep, maybe this is the case.
Take it into your local Apple Store, this just ain't right.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Informative)
I run dual monitors (24" Dell) with my MBP, I run VM Ware Fusion with 1 GB of RAM allocated to the machine (I run a 2G MBP so it is capped at 2 Gigs of Ram). I have Fink installed and when compiling I can still have the VM up and all the while not having any stability issues. I hardly have any updates (and I check weekly). I've never experienced nor heard of anyone in my circle (we are about 20) who have had issues with Leopard. Despite it being a bit sluggish compared to a well setup Ubuntu install or a stripped down XP SP2, I would say it is more stable than the other two over time. I do get the "sleep" problem you mention though, but that seems to be endemic across laptops and OS'. For whatever reason, no one has perfected awaking from sleep yet.
I'm wondering if your laptop might not have some serious issues. What you describe seems out of the ordinary. You might want to send it off for a checkup. Perhaps you have dying RAM? I've never had to restart Leopard safe for a major update (usually a security patch) and certainly never when plugging in a second monitor. I plug it in and it just works.
Sure, myself and the 20 folks I work with are a small sample size and therefore this is mostly anecdotal, but just in case, you may want to get it looked at.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, I have to reboot a Unix box because I update a web browser. I don't know what came over Apple to make that decision; the only reason I can think of is that Safari hooks into the kernel - and quite seriously, a kext for a browser is a pretty bad design choice.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Insightful)
Because you're doing it wrong??
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:4, Insightful)
It will pass the generic:
if(!exists(qttray.exe))
{
}
check but when it tries to execute it it just fails silently.
More on point, though: By deleting the file (or doing this little hack I proposed) you're still "changing your usage." It would be easier to just disable it in msconfig.
Of course, even that is fallible: Next time the app updates itself it'll be re-enabled.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Funny)
Of course, even that is fallible: Next time the app updates itself it'll be re-enabled.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Funny)
Samir: No one in this country can ever pronounce my name right. It's not that hard: Samir Na-gheen-an-a-jar. Nagheenanajar.
Michael Bolton: Yeah, well at least your name isn't Michael Bolton.
Samir: You know there's nothing wrong with that name.
Michael Bolton: There was nothing wrong with it... until I was about 12 years old and that no-talent ass clown became famous and started winning Grammys.
Samir: Hmm... well why don't you just go by Mike instead of Michael?
Michael Bolton: No way. Why should I change? He's the one who sucks.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Informative)
It's the first thing I do after installing stuff - disabling stupid startup items.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Insightful)
(For that matter, why were people using Realplayer?)
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:4, Interesting)
A hearty welcome to our latest new member (Score:5, Interesting)
Here we will help you commiserate as you belch out the pains brought to you by software that is premised on the thought that ALL users would surely want this software until the day they die.
With the mentality (and social skills) of clippy, these coders work double time to ensure that your experience with their software will be never ending. What could possibly be worse than malware you might ask. How about software that has an uninstall feature but won't do so?
I'm wagging my finger at you AOL, Apple, MS... you, antivirus guy in the back snickering, you can STFU too.
We're glad to have you as a member, and look forward to your votes in the awards ceremonies next year. Note that Internet infamy is your for the taking if your right up for nominees is both exacting and excoriating.
I'm still investigating, but the OOo quickstart on XP may get a nomination. HP printer driver division has a place on my list too.
Anyway, mill around, meet the other members, enjoy....
Re:A hearty welcome to our latest new member (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Insightful)
You should try to remove Norton virus checker. It has pieces of itself everywhere, and it over writes Windows system files with its own.
So you get a brand new machine, and during the first login, the Norton installer runs. You have NO choice in this. Some deal was reached between the machine distributor and Norton, and that is just the way it is.
If you make a mistake, the entire Windows system goes sideways. We alway do an image FIRST, then try to remove it. That way if something blows up you have a fallback. Then we make an image for the rest of the same type of machine, and we re-image every new one that comes in the door.
Hey Norton: go stuff it!
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Informative)
Just open Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add or remove programs and uninstall it. Reboot.
If the install asks for password, the password is symantec.
After reboot uninstall Live-Update, also from control panel. Reboot.
Then download norton removal tool [symantec.com] and run it to make sure it's gone.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Insightful)
What irritates me is why the hell do they have an uninstaller if it, you know, doesn't uninstall the damn thing? I suppose if they're going to put removal tools for viruses on their site they may as well include one for their own "products".
The only people who write worse (un)installers than Symantec is Adobe. I truly think they have nothing but brain-dead chimps on their install team.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Informative)
I work in computer repair, and on more than just a few occasions, the actual uninstaller for norton doesn't work. In fact, it takes very little effort to get a copy of norton to stop functioning properly. The security center will warn that certain parts of the software aren't working properly- and when you try to fix it, they just don't work. So then you try to uninstall it, and it comes up with an error.
So, I'd like to correct your few steps:
Step 1. Run the Norton Removal Tool. Don't waste your time with any of the other steps.
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope I'm not the only one struck by the irony of this article formatting given that this it is criticizing bad UI design...
Re:Print Version (and my Apple woes) (Score:5, Insightful)
Quicktime - It's both a terrible media player and it is insanely unwilling to be removed. Apple's central design concept seems to be preventing the user from doing what he wants. If I delete qttask.exe, it means I don't want that file anymore, not that I want it to be resurrected. If I disable it in msconfig, it doesn't mean that the next time Quicktime runs I want it to get a new startup entry.
iTunes - ituneshelper.exe is about the same as qttask, and iTunes is even worse at playing music than Quicktime is at playing movies. It's the single most bloated piece of software I've ever used. The iTunes store is another reason to avoid it, not to use it. It also crashes way too much on a new MacBook Pro, and since I don't know what Apple compatible software is a good replacement for it, I can't just replace it for my friend as I would if he had Windows.
Apple Updater - Everyone I know just installed Safari. They didn't mean to.
Flash - Thank you, Flashblock, for making the internet useable again. Thank you, bad web designers, for sticking retarded flash "intro pages" on your sites so I can see that they've been blocked and then avoid your company on principal.
HP Printer Philosophy - Thanks to you, too, HP, for making a printer that needs an IP to be set via a web interface in order to access that same web interface. Thanks to my neighbor for having a parallel cable sitting around so I could access it in a more traditional way.
Windows Desktop - Why do you lose my icon placement every time your resolution changes? Luckily, there are countless little freeware apps to save icon positions.
Real Player - You basically invented the Apple "if you uninstall me but I will grow more powerful than you can possibly imagine" routine, so you get extra evil points for originality.
Logitech Mouse Drivers - My mouse drivers are now 100 megs. Finally they fixed the two year problem of needing to run them manually after booting (running on startup caused them to fail), but they still involve two separate taskbar icons and take up a ton of RAM.
Word - I know how to make you do what I want, but it took years to learn how to both stop your autoformatting and then put in the formatting I want. I hate the way you place images. I hate the way you resize my stuff after I've already locked it down.
Verizon Phone UI - My phone had a great UI and lots of nice capabilities when it was made. You removed bluetooth file transfers so I'd have to pay you to get photos off my phone, and you made the interface ugly. You removed the ability to vibrate and ring at the same time. I'm glad my phone was so easily hackable.
Flash (again, but bear with me) movie players - The only reason you exist is to keep me from saving video to my hard disk. Guess what. I can still do it. Meanwhile, you're slow, often not resizable without using a magnifying tool to manually zoom onto your little box, and you require me to enable flash.
I know how to fix or replace all of you, but you kill me every time I have to use a new PC and wade through your bloated code again.
Not software, but what it does (Score:5, Interesting)
I think we could distill the kinds of annoyance exhibited by your list and those of others here into a fairly concise list of "bad behaviours":
In other words, software that can't just do its job and leave everything else well alone.
Norton Products... (Score:5, Insightful)
The worst has to be the Norton XXXX products. I installed Norton 360 v2 on my laptop as an "upgrade" to Norton AntiVirus 2007, and I think that intentionally installing a few viruses and malware would have resulted in better overall system performance.
Symantec tech support was, of course, useless:
"Sir, you have a virus or malware."
"Yes, I know: the malware is called Norton 360 since my problems didn't appear until I installed your product. What I want to know is how to stop Norton 360 from using 100% of both cores and incessently accessing the DVD drive for no apparent reason."
"Sir, you need to run a scan for virus and malware."
At least I got the damn thing uninstalled and got a refund. Never again...
Re:Norton Products... (Score:5, Informative)
AVG Free.
AVG Free.
AVG Free.
You should start to feel better soon.
Re:Norton Products... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Norton Products... (Score:5, Interesting)
Just an FYI
Re:Norton Products... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Norton Products... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Norton Products... (Score:5, Informative)
And they had 64-bit support before AVG, that's why I switched.
Re:Norton Products... (Score:5, Interesting)
What was the last good version? Norton Utilities for DOS 6.01?
Re:Norton Products... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Norton Products... (Score:4, Informative)
But wait! it gets better. You cannot uninstall it through the remove programs. You have to go into safe mode and uninstall there. Otherwise, you'll just get error messages - regardless if you use Norton's uninstall or Windows.
What a kick in the balls!
Re:Norton Products... (Score:4, Informative)
What you meant to say, is that it blocks internet access- and this is true. Norton Internet Security's default install would block any and all internet access. I think they finally put out an update that fixed it, but during one or two months in 2006ish/2007 we had about 15 computers come in with the same symptoms - no internet. Took us very little time to figure out that it was the NIS firewall's default settings. Bloody stupid if you ask me.
You haven't seen some of the alternatives (Score:5, Interesting)
Some years ago, for example, sick and tired of Norton, I went and bought McAffee's anti-virus. In fact, I figured I'd go for the full monte, including firewall, "privacy" stuff, you name it. I can't be arsed to dig up the CD and find out which year it was, and I wouldn't know if it got any better in the meantime. (Though I would be surprised.)
The first funny impression was when trying to update it. As is the craze in the last decade, it couldn't just have either a URL to their download page, or a neat little downloader program. It just had to launch an ActiveX control in a browser to do the actual download and install. It launched whatever browser you had configured as default. E.g., for me it was Mozilla. It only actually worked in IE.
But wait, the patcher was more stupid than that.
I didn't have too much space left on C:, but I had vast amounts of space on my slower D: drive. So I refuse to install it to the default location, and install it to D:.
Then I run the updater. It installs the updates to the default location on C:. Literally, it was too fucking stupid to either ask, or figure out where its own installer had put those programs.
It gets funnier. Presumably because it couldn't figure out where they were, it didn't uninstall or at least disable the origina, unpatched version on D:. It just let it run too.
If you think one anti-virus is a resource and CPU hog, now picture twice that. It felt like I had downgraded back to my trusty old 486.
Now I don't know how good their virus protection was, I didn't actually have a virus. Their privacy stuff, though, now that made most sites that required a login, no longer work. And it made some schizophrenic: they thought I was simultaneously logged in _and_ not logged in. It was giving me some insight into what Schroedinger's cat must have felt
To cut a long story short, and skip over a few more faults, after a few days I uninstalled it.
The uninstaller, though, only got rid of the new patched copy from C:. It left the one on D: as it was, and loading itself in memory anyway. Trying the uninstaller from D: didn't seem to work either. I had to manually mess with the registry to get rid of it.
On the whole, it left me the impression that it makes malware look good by comparison. Ok, so you have to mess with the registry in safe mode too, to get rid of it, so it's a tie there. Most viruses don't use as many resources or interfere with your daily use of the computer half as much, though.
Re:ANY Enterprise AntiVirus (Score:5, Insightful)
Besides, the damned thing isn't your property. It's your employer's, so it's not yours to fuck with.
Winamp becoming Damned Irritating (Score:5, Interesting)
Click on "omg! Update me!" big window.
Browse through newly openeded browser window.
No, just the free one, no shitty MP3's thanks.
Download. Click install.
No ffs, don't take control over all my media types.
No, keep your shitty ad-ware.
Die Winamp agent; if you're not the default for everything it's for a reason.
Yeah, same settings as last time (it's an update ffs).
Oh right, you changed a bunch of setting anyway, thanks.
There's just a tonne of questions that are so unnecessary for a minor update, which seem to come thick & fast these days. Thanks a bunch AOL; you've created the least smooth updating process i've seen in a while.
Re:Winamp becoming Damned Irritating (Score:4, Insightful)
WinAmp 2.95 was perfect. Small, wicked fast, just about perfect.
WinAmp 3 was an unnecessary rewrite, and I didn't like it much. Felt slower for no real benefit to me. It was about this time I went over to iTunes (mostly due to iPod).
Then they later released 5 because of all the complaints. 2 (the good version) + 3 (the recent version) = 5 (the new version). Never tried it, WinAmp had lost all mindshare by that point.
So much good software just bloats past what it needed and into death. Reader used to be pretty good. Norton wasn't the amazingly bad program it is now, it was once the best.
Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:4, Informative)
Apple iTunes - Using open source music program "Amarok". Result? Software does not annoy (and works much better than iTunes as well).
Windows Update - Using Genuine Linux Distro "Ubuntu". Result? No licensing restrictions, no DRM, no repeated system restarts, no service packs to fix the previous service pack, that fixed the previous service pack, that fixed months old critical bugs.
RealPlayer - Avoiding RealPlayer like the plague it is (using "Amarok" for the same functionality, if not the same file format). Result? No privacy leaks, no ads, no reporting back to Real on what I listen to or where I visit on the web.
Java - Using Sun's Java without the Yahoo toolbar. Result? Java is reasonably well behaved. Looking forward to truly open-sourced Java in the near future.
Yahoo - Use Yahoo's maps to check up on Google results. Use Yahoo throw-away email when I need to be a little bit stealthy. Otherwise avoid Yahoo.com like the plague it is. Result? Happy camper.
Norton Antivirus - Using upgraded OS "Linux" so that viruses are not a problem. Result? Viruses? I don't have no stinking viruses!
Preinstalled software bundles - Using upgraded OS "Linux" so that preinstalled software bundles are not a problem. Result? Preinstalled software bundles? I don't have no stinking preinstalled software bundles!
Outlook/Exchange - Using "Evolution". The jury is still out on whether "Evolution" is worth using verses online calendar and scheduling web sites.
Flash - Using...nothing. Avoiding flash based websites like the plague they are. Results? Fast web page loading, no privacy issues, no vector for malware installation, only see web pages that actually provide links to relevant content.
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:4, Insightful)
No, but why would you want to? It defaults to Magnatune, which has a much nicer business model than iTunes. No DRM, more formats including patent-free Ogg Vorbis, artists gets half of what you pay instead of only 10% or less, you pay whatever you think is reasonable, and you're allowed, nay, encouraged to share. I think you can also get other music stores like Jamendo for Amarok, but I personally use Gnome's Rhythmbox, which has plugins by default for both of these stores. Sure, you won't find Britney Spears selling her stuff in Magnatune, but the quality of the music is not bad at all, even if it's not what's currently playinig in MTV.
Personally, iTunes was the biggest reason why I installed Debian etch on my mom's laptop. She doesn't know her own root password, of course; I'm the one adminning it for her. A bit of a hassle for me to set up at first, but now it works fine, and it has the rock solid stability of Debian. She loves it, and in her own words, "a lot less bullshitty than that other thing." She doesn't know the other thing is called Sony Vaio's default Windows XP install with all that crapware it comes with out of the box.
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:4, Informative)
This one needs some clarification... Remember not to buy your music from the iTunes store or using Amarok doesn't help much. Buy from a vendor that does not use DRM-laden music downloads (such as Amazon), use Amarok, and annoyances are no more!
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:5, Insightful)
For Linux, Agreed. But when is Evince going to work in Windows ? Oh. Never ?? So what choice does a person using windows have ?
For Linux, Agreed. But when is Amarok going to work in Windows or with people's iPods? Oh. Never ?? So what alternateive choice does a person using windows have ?
No repeated system restarts, but none ? What about when your kernel is updated ? What about VMWare needing to be recompiled once you HAVE rebooted ?
See above comments for Amarok.
True. However if you do filesharing with Windows, you should consider something like Avast which has a free Windows AND Linux version.
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:5, Informative)
foxItPDF fixIt (Score:4, Informative)
- the icons don't look red enough to be pdf.
- It insists in changing the register value for
.fdf
every time it launches. So if you like to create a new folder by
Right-Click N F it no longer works.
Anyone know how to banish shellNew permanently from the Reg? Temporary solution is (last line sets the icon back to adobe's)REGEDIT4
[-HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.fdf\ShellNew]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\FoxitReader.Document\DefaultIcon]
@="C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Acrobat 7.0\\Reader\\AcroRd32.exe,1"
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:5, Informative)
I get all the benefits of no flash, but can still watch youtube and all the rest if I change my mind with no hassle.
Re:Honestly, these problems are solveable (Score:4, Informative)
Bloody Adobe Reader (Score:5, Interesting)
Storm
Re:Bloody Adobe Reader (Score:5, Informative)
I've been using FoxIt recently which is quite nice. That said, Reading is an amazing piece of software.
It's slow. Really slow. Amazingly slow. It uses tons of memory. It's just atrocious. But I was used to it on Windows (before a friend pointed out FoxIt which I switched to immediately).
Then I switched to OS X and got to use Preview. It's wicked fast. It's like opening a 1kb text file in Notepad on Windows. It's almost instant. It's easy to use, no crazy interface, not 6 updates to the updater each time I open it.
Then I installed CS 2.
Soon I tried to open a PDF and thought my computer locked up because the file didn't pop open. After a bit the loading screen popped up and loaded. Then the program, then the document. It was terrible.
So I went and changed the file association and now Preview handles them again and my system works.
I remember when I had a full copy of Acrobat (not reader, Acrobat) and it opened about 10x faster than Reader does on the relatively high-end (multi-core, 2GB+ RAM) machines I've been forced to use it on.
Almost everything on the list was good at one time or another. RealPlayer, while not perfect, was small and fast. Norton (the first version for 95) was quite good, even on my slow 386 (yes... 386). Outlook used to be WAY faster than it is now. On my nice desktop it feels like I'm running it through VirtualWindows on a 500MHz G4.
Flash it's self isn't bad. But so many people seem to not use delay loops and let it run at 600 FPS and suck up all the CPU. Combine that with the terrible and slow interfaces people use it for and it gets a bad rap. Flashblock is your friend here.
Re:Bloody Adobe Reader (Score:5, Interesting)
The cool kids are using Sumatra [kowalczyk.info] now.
It's a little sparse on features (like remembering page view settings), but it makes even Foxit look slow.
Re:Bloody Adobe Reader (Score:5, Informative)
Why just Windows Update? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why just Windows Update? (Score:5, Funny)
What? (Score:5, Funny)
Please let Apple software update be on there... (Score:5, Insightful)
Takes one to know one (Score:5, Informative)
My vote: HP (Score:5, Informative)
But I also noticed my computer was running slower, even when no HP utilities were being used. So I looked at the Activity Monitor and found the HP background applications were permanently taking up 10% CPU, even if nothing was ever printed or scanned. So I removed all of the HP utilities and drivers and found a driver built into OS X which was for almost the same model number. I have no problems at all printing and my CPU is back to normal utilization.
Not only do these HP utilities suck, but they're annoying when you're not even using them.
Re:My vote: HP (Score:5, Interesting)
Yup, HP has lost the plot (Score:4, Insightful)
I tried to get an HP A3 inkjet going the other day, using an old P4 box as the print server.
I do not consider 100% CPU utilisation while trying to print a PDF to be acceptable, nor do I consider that having to reboot to clear a stuck job is a good idea. And this from a driver of nearly 100MBytes.
There are several other recent HP gripes that are causing me nowadays no longer to recommend HP printers. I guess it will take many years to recover from Fiorina.
Re:My vote: HP (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, I really really hate this. When will printer manufacturers learn that I don't want to install your stupid little utilities?!
Give me plain, unadulterated drivers, not software installs. Give me a PPD/INF/whatever that I can point my OS to and use all of the built-in OS printing functions. That's all I want.
Same with cameras, scanners, and pretty much any other hardware out there. Give me the driver and leave me alone.
Update apps... (Score:5, Insightful)
There's no question that your system should be aware of what software is installed, and what the latest version is, and make the user aware too and give them the option to install the updates.
On linux you rarely, if ever, get problems like this because the updates are handled centrally.
The problem with windows and osx, is that there is no central way for third party apps to register to the automatic update mechanism, the supplied update functions are only for the original vendor's apps, not third parties, meaning every third party has their own update service wasting memory and informing/annoying you in different ways.
The linux approach is orders of magnitude better, centralised package repositories, a centralised method of informing the user, you can choose how to be informed of updates, and you won't be hassle any other way. To further help matters, the package manager knows of packages you don't have installed too, giving you single click access to the latest versions of a whole host of additional applications.
Re:Update apps... (Score:4, Interesting)
If you're away from your desk for a minute or two to go to the bathroom, and you didn't save your documents- shame on you, Microsoft decided that their software updates are more important than the productivity of the person using the software, which is absolute crap. It restarts without prompting for saving. It forces a shutdown. Does this on Server2003 too- REAAAAL good for production environments (and yes, automatic updates is off... not even sure how it got started )
What about Lotus Note? (Score:4, Funny)
ARGHSFARGH! (Score:5, Insightful)
Acrobat Reader on Linux (Score:5, Interesting)
It insisted upon putting a bunch of worthless crap in my ~/.kde and ~/.local directories, overriding my MIME types and replacing KDE's PDF icons (which looked consistent with all the other KDE icons) with its own icons, which clearly were out of place.
Of course, it also decided to set itself as the preferred reader for PDFs, contrary to my preference. It would have been annoying, but bearable, had it asked me about this before it made invasive changes, but simply running the program was enough to wreak havoc.
So fuck you Adobe, I'll continue to use kpdf, which doesn't feel the need to take over my desktop. As an added bonus, kpdf doesn't have a million worthless plugins that slow down application startup, either.
Left out Top Ten Slideshows (Score:5, Insightful)
What about "top ten slideshows" on big media websites that present their "top ten" on eleven or twelve separate pages, each filled with more ads and other distractions than the actual "content" you've been directed to via Slashdot?
Yeah, I know they're not "applications" but, the annoyance factor is right up there.
Flashblock FTW (Score:4, Informative)
Best Firefox extension EVER. Works on Seamonkey, too, which is what I use at home.
It's Not Always the Software Per Se (Score:5, Interesting)
Sometimes it's the exclusive distribution method or the update method that truly irks.
Google's Sketch-up Pro is available only by download. Not a problem in the US, but on a remote US base in Afghanistan? A CD/DVD option would have been most helpful.
As already pointed out above, updaters can be a significant issue even if the software itself is acceptable. The status quo should be maintained for settings, file associations and preferences, TYVM.
Advertise on the web and through the quality of your product, not via the update process.
The answer is right there in front of you (Score:5, Funny)
"The Most Annoying Software Out There - Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 5"
I didn't say it - the browser did!
Re:The answer is right there in front of you (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The answer is right there in front of you (Score:4, Funny)
Re:The answer is right there in front of you (Score:5, Informative)
Java update process needs fixing (Score:5, Informative)
Java(tm) 5 update 6
Java(tm) 5 update 11
Java(tm) 6 update 1
Java(tm) 6 update 3
Java(tm) 6 update 4
Java(tm) 6 update 6
worse than annoying for someone like me (Score:5, Interesting)
Right on the money (Score:5, Interesting)
Usually I disagree with these rather non-technical whiners, but I found this to be right on the money this time. Besides, there's some wonderful British humor there:
Acrobat Reader"a reputation for being as welcome as a flatulent camel in the kitchen"
Windows Update
We've been kind and not talked about Vista.
RealPlayer
"If this software turned up at your door, you'd call the police."
"... we were given software to install. 'Disable your firewall', it commanded. 'Drop dead', we replied."
Java
"Programming languages are like sewage plants: if the average user becomes aware of them, something's gone wrong."
Yahoo
"And yes, when I ask to exit the software, that's because I really want to, not because I'm having a crisis of doubt."
Flash
"There's nothing wrong with Flash, provided you don't use it to construct web sites where people want to find information..."
Flash! Aaaaaaa! (Score:5, Insightful)
Flash is too often used for creating website navigation widgets, or worse yet, for encapsulating entire websites. And even worse than that are the horribly annoying Flash version-checker scripts, which demand that you will install or upgrade Flash before viewing this site, because "I spent fifteen minutes on those fancy Flash-based site nav buttons, and you damn well better look at them" even though virtually all of the site's actual content is in plain HTML.
What's more, I don't need or want a Flash widget to view a series of JPEGs. Just show me the damn images - I'm perfectly capable of clicking by myself to move on to the next one, thanks.
Re:Flash! Aaaaaaa! (Score:4, Informative)
I ditched my last professional web design job. It was for a paintball site. I presented samples of effective navigation from other sites (some related, some not) and had a discussion about directing visitor traffic and what needs to be emphasized.
Then he starts showing me this flash app that resembles the Windows XP start menu, where all the options are buried. Whenever you click on one, it would just load a different HTML page...in a new window.
I must have tried to reason with him for an hour. I tried to explain to him how I (in a professional capacity) did not feel it was beneficial and would turn visitors away. He eventually told me I didn't know what I was talking about, and started showing me even more "better-looking" sites, all contaminated with flash menus that didn't even work together.
I had the chance to walk away from that job. Not all web designers do. If your project manager wants flash, either you can do it, or his nephew can.
Resident processes for no reason! (Score:5, Informative)
For example: Quickbooks. Why does it have to have (IIRC) three services running EVEN IF QUICKBOOKS ITSELF IS NOT RUNNING!? One of them is for updates. The other two I have no idea, but all three sure bogged my system down. I uninstalled Quickbooks and it took Registry Mechanic to get rid of everything. I tell you with this and other problems I've had with Intuit, if I see that company's name on something , I refuse to buy it.
Back in my day, when we had to program in the snow, uphill both ways, we would check for updates upon startup AND allow the user to turn it off.
Folks, just because there is a feature for programs or cool way of doing something, does not mean it's a good design.
Now about Windows registry and the fact that it only grows.....Never mind. I need a drink.
My vote: The Browser (Score:5, Interesting)
A good UI shouldn't have to have users embedding markup language manually. It shouldn't have to trouble you about fonts, re-sizing your window widths. It shouldn't have ways that browser makers can bugger up wysiwyg information in so many ingenious ways.
Mark me as flamebait if you want, but the browser is a disaster, years after its invention, and constant reinvention.
SAP? (Score:4, Interesting)
pages (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Did they mention linux firefox? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Did they mention linux firefox? (Score:4, Informative)
Or apt-get install msttcorefonts for debian/ubuntu users.
db
I concur (Score:4, Insightful)
They should have included themselves on the bloody list.
Re:For those who use Adobe (Score:4, Informative)
I'm sorry, but as nice as some of Foxit's features were, the two things that irritated me about it were first that you still had to pay to get the full featureset, and second that it kept altering the goddamn context menu option. "Foxit Reader, Best Reader for Everyday Use!"
How's 'bout just "Foxit Reader." *Regedit*
2 reboots later...
"Foxit Reader, Best Reader for Everyday Use!"
No, your name is "Foxit Reader." That's...fucking...it. You don't tell me what you are, I tell you what you are on MY computer. And stop expanding out my context menu with a name 3 times longer than any of the other options contained therein.
*Regedit*
2 reboots later... Ad nauseam.
Try SumatraPDF if you just need to read documents. It's super-lightweight, which does unfortunately mean it lacks some features of Foxit, Evince, and others, but I find that I'm usually only interested in reading documents anyway and for that, Sumatra is excellent.
Re:It's for multisession CD-R. (Score:5, Insightful)
The program doesn't know that.
People were used to dragging files on and off a 1.4 MiB floppy disk. As the floppy began to disappear around the time of Windows 98 and the iMac, floppy formats from Iomega and Imation with nearly a hundred times the capacity enjoyed some limited success because the file manager treated them just like floppies. Some CD mastering apps tried to emulate floppy use cases by loading the existing sessions off a CD, mapping a temporary folder that imported the previous sessions, and writing the changes to a .iso and then to the CD once the user started to eject the CD.
But in the ISO 9660 format, the starting sector number of each file depends on the number of sectors in previous sessions, so building an image can't happen until the mastering program knows how large the previous sessions are. And because the mastering application doesn't know that your CDs are straight from the shrinkwrap until it reads the disc, it doesn't build the image until then. Sure, they could have put in a checkbox to turn multisession recording on and off, but that would not have increased hardware sales or software license revenue compared to the increased support costs from inexperienced users who mistakenly uncheck that box and try to add a session.