For me, the annoyance comes from not being able to tell if the operation has stalled ("Did it just inch forward, or was that just a pulse?"), which decreases th

For me, the annoyance comes from not being able to tell if the operation has stalled ("Did it just inch forward, or was that just a pulse?"), which decreases the amount of useful information available to me. I would guess this is done intentionally, to keep impatient people from canceling the operation when they should really just let it run. If that's the case, however, I would argue that the real problem is not providing enough feedback to indicate whether the operation is still proceeding as planned. Ie, whether a long wait is expected at this step or not. I wonder if a progress bar is really the best indicator for this purpose.