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

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

#301

Post by yesenadam »

fortysixdegrees wrote: post #126

GIMP. If it didn't exist someone would probably have started a fresh effort for an OSS Photoshop alternative which doesn't suck. I've tried soooo hard for decades to become comfortable in GIMP but I can never get close.

I like GIMP, but started using krita recently because I needed its CMYK features. It's pretty awesome! More painting- than photo-oriented, but seems it can do most of what PS does. This link talks about what krita does that PS doesn't, then what PS does that krita can't.

https://docs.krita.org/en/user_manual/introduction_from_othe...

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

#302

Post by b215826 »

KolenCh wrote: post #245
b215826 wrote: post #86

Mathematica. Clunky interface on Linux, requires that you use the Notebook interface for most things, terrible to run headlessly on a server, need to be happy with the defaults that Wolfram provides, etc. However, it's still the best CAS around and open-source alternatives e.g., Sage, have a long way to catch up.

It is a horrible language, I think some called it a write-only language. But what it can do is powerful. For something there’s no alternative. They have provided a Python interface and I always want to use the Python interface more to work around the language problem. Also Sympy has a way to read Mathematica expresssion I think.

> It is a horrible language, I think some called it a write-only language.

TBH, I don't think that the language is badly designed for a CAS. Most CAS (e.g., Maxima, Maple, etc.) all use a language that's heavily influenced by functional programming languages. But yeah, Mathematica is terrible for numerical work, and doesn't play well with other external libraries or tools.

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

#303

Post by oalae5niMiel7qu »

Anything from Red Hat. That includes PolicyKit (basically a backdoored version of "sudo", "su", and other time-honored Unix security tools), SystemD, PulseAudio, DBus, and a bunch of others. They're all 100% garbage, but Red Hat has convinced everyone else to depend on them so getting rid of them means being horribly limited when it comes to what you can run, even on FreeBSD.

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

#304

Post by legobmw99 »

fartcannon wrote: post #262
tsuujin wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a silly take. Game Pass is the best value in gaming today by a huge margin and I say that as a general naysayer of MIcrosoft. It is a reasonable take for someone to stay with MS because of the service.

Theres no reason to be childish. There's lots of alternatives to game pass that will net you significantly high quality experiences without supporting convicted monopolist Microsofts Disney-ification of the games industry.

This take is ignoring the social nature of much of gaming. Changing which set of games I play is one thing, convincing my friend group to go with me is another. Especially for my friends whose primary way of playing games is on an XBox, meaning we rely on cross play as much as we can

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

#305

Post by oalae5niMiel7qu »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #294
oalae5niMiel7qu wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it breaks privacy then it is NOT secure.

Privacy means my data is private. I don't know if security implies privacy, in my mind I'm referring specifically to protection from direct threats to my device that aim to access resources that my browser doesn't expose (filesystem, elevated privileges and that kind of things). That being said, my statement still stands. In that case, I can just summarize it as "I can't find a browser as secure as Chrome" (implying…

If people can access resources you don't think your browser exposes, then in fact your browser does expose those things. You just didn't realize it.

Security does imply privacy, because one of the most important things in warfare is keeping information away from your adversary. If your browser is freely giving away information without a care in the world about who gets that information, then of course that information will end up in the hands of your enemies, and from there it can be used to do something you'd more readily recognize as a "security breach."

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

#306

Post by zzo38computer »

The web browser, which is a rather old version of Firefox in my case. The other ones aren't better; they are bad, too. I have ideas how to make a better one (one idea is all file formats and protocols are extensions (implemented in native code) and not built-in, and there are other ideas to make it better for advanced users only, and I have ideas about the C API and "document view" format and other features, etc).

There are some recent messages on Usenet about "Web considered harmful" and commentary/discussions about such things, including some of my own comments.

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

#307

Post by ffpip »

SecurityLagoon wrote: post #287
ffpip wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can send a message without saving their contact, as long as you have their number. https://wa.me/their-number-with-the-country-code Paste this link(after putting their number) in a chat with yourself ( https://wa.me/your-number-with-the-country-code ) and just click the link.

That is a way but its obviously not encouraged or it'd be a built in feature. Sending yourself a message with a custom URL isn't exactly amazing UX.

> or it'd be a built in feature

It is a built in feature. People can generate wa.me URLs for their account in settings.

That is a domain owned by WhatsApp. It's not some unofficial service.

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

#308

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #294
oalae5niMiel7qu wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it breaks privacy then it is NOT secure.

Privacy means my data is private. I don't know if security implies privacy, in my mind I'm referring specifically to protection from direct threats to my device that aim to access resources that my browser doesn't expose (filesystem, elevated privileges and that kind of things). That being said, my statement still stands. In that case, I can just summarize it as "I can't find a browser as secure as Chrome" (implying…

That is working around my intended meaning, it is not trying to build on top of it. The browser doesn't expose and allow writing to my filesystem indiscriminately, an exploit will allow that, but it's definitely not intended and that's what I'm referring to.

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

#309

Post by da39a3ee »

hanche wrote: post #227
da39a3ee wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

I guess it is a case of eat your own dog food. But LaTeX and PDF have existed for longer than any more flexible format suited for the task. And last but not least, if the documentation is to actually show you the typeset result using the package, it is hard to get around the PDF format. (Though you can always embed images of typeset excerpts in documents of a different format.)

I think my problem is that they never seem to contain an introduction to how to use the package; they seem to be a mixture of API reference and jumping-immediately-into-obscure-details.

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

#310

Post by daybyday »

theduemmer wrote: post #83

Rockwell Automation's Factory Talk software. It is used for developing GUIs for screens on industrial machines. Horribly expensive, laggy and broken. Versioning is a nightmare with crappy backwards compatibility (if it even decides to open the old project at all without crashing or locking up). God help you if it decides it doesn't want to deploy the screen programs over the network because then it becomes a song and…

Hey, I'm a software test engineer in Factory Talk. Let me see if I can act on your feedback, can we chat? You can find my email address in my profile. Cheers
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