Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#171

Post by da39a3ee » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:06 AM UTC

bjourne wrote: post #114

Latex. The document object model is stupid. The Latex language's syntax and semantics are weird and idiosyncratic. Every Latex package uses its own weird conventions. It's slow. But there are thousands of packages out there for almost any conceivable problem you might have. And that makes Latex very very useful. But it is not well-designed software.

Yes, I spent several months lovingly creating an open source LaTeX tool in the last few years. And yet... yes, you're right of course. I hate those stupid PDF "manuals" that each package has -- they have to be one of the least successful media for teaching anyone how to use anything!

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#172

Post by polishdude20 » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:16 AM UTC

Stevvo wrote: post #168

3DS Max. It has bugs that have been unfixed for 20 years ... I make models for Microsoft Flight Simulator where it is the only software that can export models correctly; there is an unsupported Blender exporter, but I'm not enthusiastic about learning that product from scratch; it has many of its own idiosyncrasies.

What format do the models need to be exported correctly?

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#173

Post by polishdude20 » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:20 AM UTC

mikewarot wrote: post #139

Windows, Linux, Android - I hate them all. None give me capability based security. All are the equivalent of a fortification build out of crates of nitroglycerine. Any inbound inject of control that works turns them into a devastating resource for the enemy.

What do you recommend?

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#174

Post by nunez » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:20 AM UTC

expensify

i don’t hate it per se. it’s actually quite good at what it does. but i don’t like paying for something i can implement myself but can’t because making time to do so and justifying it is challenging

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#175

Post by Stevvo » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:21 AM UTC

polishdude20 wrote: post #172

Stevvo wrote: post #168

3DS Max. It has bugs that have been unfixed for 20 years ... I make models for Microsoft Flight Simulator where it is the only software that can export models correctly; there is an unsupported Blender exporter, but I'm not enthusiastic about learning that product from scratch; it has many of its own idiosyncrasies.

What format do the models need to be exported correctly?

It's GLTF but with custom extensions.

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#176

Post by kingnothing » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:21 AM UTC

adamleithp wrote: post #6

Adobe suite. After effects, illustrator, inDesign etc Adobe in the above fields of design are industry leaders, and have the features & functions we’ve come to rely on. Adobe’s pricing model has become very aggressive, and quite unaffordable for lots.

Photopea is a decent alternative for light personal / hobby use if anyone is interested.

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#177

Post by nunez » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:23 AM UTC

bravetraveler wrote: post #156

aledue wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Temas refuses(ed?) to let you hear voice calls if you use Firefox. It's the only reason I have Chromium installed too.

If my experience forcing WebEx in the past has taught me anything, it should be a matter of webRTC features and user agent

there’s a plug-in that tries this; it kind of works but won’t allow you to make calls for whatever reason

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#178

Post by nunez » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:24 AM UTC

PeterisP wrote: post #34

JCWasmx86 wrote: post #7

MS Teams: What makes it bad: First of all, it uses Electron, thus it is laggy and wastes too much resources. Maybe it is just a pet peeve of mine, but I hate , if an application does not look native on my GNOME Desktop and does not follow any HIG. Another factor is the proprietary nature of MS Teams. If it was open, there would probably be some other client/some way to have a real native client. My preferred alternat…

Teams is also horrible if you are in multiple organizations, as it simply fails to consider that you might want to easily switch between two different Teams meetings with different authentication, like it's trivial to do with e.g. Slack.

OMG yes.

You’ll get a notification from a Teams instance in one tenant, but you need to switch accounts entirely in order to take action on it, which is REALLY slow for stupid reasons.

Also, you can’t run multiple instances of Teams signed into multiple tenants to work around this, and video conferencing is broken in all sorts of ways if you use Teams from the browser

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#179

Post by nunez » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:27 AM UTC

rchaves wrote: post #25

Jira, for sure, and it seems hard to run away from, almost everyone use it It seems like the only alternative is to fund my own startup, with me as a sole shareholder, just to forbid Jira forever

Jira is fucking awesome compared to other corporate ticketing systems (CA rally and servicenow)

Re: Ask HN: Software you hate but can't replace?

#180

Post by nunez » Sun, Feb 06, 2022, 5:32 AM UTC

kortex wrote: post #164

Awscli. It's not just the complexity or inconsistency; that kinda comes with the territory. It's just not discoverable. Constantly have to be googling stuff. Boto is in a similar vein. Stupid capital letter arguments. No type information, no autocomplete.

use azure cli or gcloud if you ever want to fall in love with awscli again!

want to, say, log in? i hope you like OAuth and/or dealing with JSON

want to configure a less popular service? enjoy downloading plugins with documentation that’s one or two minors behind stable. (for azure specifically, enjoy like 75% of anything you’d actually want to do being “in preview”)