The progress bar GUI widget was created so that a program could show its progress to users in a nice, linear, and moderately predictable way.
But now the progress bar is used primarily to show a complete lack of progress, moving back and forth in the progress tray like the light on a Cylon's face, as reassurance to the user that, no, the program hasn't frozen, only that the company behind it couldn't care less about its users.
@arielmt hard to do linear progress on infinite feeds! (the infinite feed itself being something uncaring, designed to entrap)
Why Not Zoidberg? 🦑
@arielmt in related news: the removal of the "Hard disk lamp" on computers was an awful idea. Being able to see if the computer is indeed frozen up or if it is actually doing something was a godsend sometimes.
@arielmt The rationale goes something like "we couldn't accurately estimate progress, and it was misleading to users, so we've just stopped trying to estimate"
And like, no, no, that is not remotely the correct takeaway here