[nullserver]

Back in 90s the progress bar was so bad it was more entertainment.

5 minutes left, 4 minutes, 23 days, 1 minute, 4000 years left.

The last 1% Taking longer the first 99%

If you installed the same software repeatedly get an idea of how long each section of the bar would take.

Windows 3.1 I’m looking at you.

[cldellow]

Yeah, this used to be a real pain point.

Page 311 of the .NET Framework Design Guidelines has this quote from Chris Sells (then a program manager for .NET, I think):

> Please make progress reporting move forward, if for no other reason than my family makes fun of me when they see a progress report going backwards, as if it's my fault. Personally, I've implemented several progress percentage algorithms and while I often can't get the timing to be smooth through all stages of an operation, at least they always move forward. In fact, I think you'd have to work extra hard to make them move backwards.

[nullserver]

Oh I had forgotten about the going backwards ones! It was like the machine was personally taunting you.

[marcosdumay]

I've seen that on the Windows 10 file copy dialog just yesterday... but yeah, they existed back in the 90's too.