Tuesday 1 February 2022

New top story on Hacker News: Ask HN: How do you explain the sloppiness of modern software?

Ask HN: How do you explain the sloppiness of modern software?
57 by etamponi | 69 comments on Hacker News.
This is a recurring theme on HN, so I think you all have very good opinions on this topic: why does modern software seem so unpolished, slow, bloated, unprofessional? Let me provide a (frustrating) example: the last straw for me has been OneDrive. I am using it to select and share photos from my wedding. It is an app written by one of the largest and most ancient software companies in history, so they should know something about making apps. And still: 1) The directory list view keeps "losing" the position at which I am, so every time I share a photo, I have to scroll down to where I left (in a directory with 5000 pictures). 2) If I screenshare using the Google Cast functionality, after a few dozens photos it loses the signal and I have to wait a few minutes before reconnecting. The entire app becomes extremely slow in the meantime. 3) The app in general is inconceivably slow. What is taking so long? I am viewing the same directory for 2 hours, why is it still so slow to load? So at this point I am struggling to understand: how comes such an app got released? Are the incentives given to developers so at odd with app quality?

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