[johns]

  - It's too low level for quick stuff
  - It handles HTTP basic auth wrong
  - It throws an exception, AN EXCEPTION, for any response that isn't 2xx
  - Async is an ugly mess
  - In love with streams
  - Horribly inconsistent across framework profiles
  - ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue
  - Inconsistent header handling and restrictions
  - Terrible cookie API

[burke_holland]

I think it's fine for simple scenarios (i.e. plain GET), but it breaks down in a hurry and the fact that you have to read out of the response stream is real overhead.

[masklinn]

> I think it's fine for simple scenarios (i.e. plain GET)

So's python's urllib2, the point of `request` is that as soon as you go even slightly beyond very basic GET and POST, it breaks down quickly in a horrible mess.

[mattmanser]

It's not fine for a plain GET, it's awful.

I'm still surprised every time I use it that they've not released a modern library for it in .Net.

[ArbitraryLimits]

The async handling was the deal breaker for me. I gritted my teeth through the other stuff but finally gave up at that point.