What a Loading Screen Can Tell You

The other day, I opened my Desktop folder and Finder had a minor hiccup where it hung for about 5 seconds. In those five seconds, it showed the infamous "Beach Ball of Death." After it disappeared, my day went on as normal. This is rare for a typical Mac, but it made me think of Windows. In Windows 10, without fail, opening my Downloads folder will result in the same hang, often for around 15-20 seconds. But instead of an indicator that says something is out of the ordinary, the window just says "Working on it..." And I think that one difference can speak volumes about the differences in macOS and Windows. The Beach Ball of Death occurs when something is out of the ordinary, while "Working on it..." is an office worker before they've had their morning coffee. It leads me to believe that this is something that Microsoft knew the user would encounter often. Maybe not. Maybe my PC is just slow, but I now have to assume that the average user will face this screen often. I think it's a bit ironic that the rarity of this in macOS is what reminded me of how often it occurs in Windows. macOS is so quick with it, you don't even realize it could hang.