I've always thought applications which need progress bars should ask you if you would be willing to share your progress data in exchange for seeing how your pro

I've always thought applications which need progress bars should ask you if you would be willing to share your progress data in exchange for seeing how your progress compares to that of other users. Not only would this allow you to get much more accurate estimates, it could also tip you off to potential issues. If others are getting past the progress stage a lot faster than you then it could mean it's time for you to investigate what's going on. Perhaps everyone else using that application has a better system than you or perhaps it's time for you to optimize your system a bit.