I vastly prefer loading spinners over wait cursors. A wait cursor usually represents some form of synchronous wait to the entire application. If I get the wait

I vastly prefer loading spinners over wait cursors. A wait cursor usually represents some form of synchronous wait to the entire application. If I get the wait cursor in a native application, there's a good chance that I'll need to wait for it to finish before I can continue my work flow. A loading spinner is often more asynchronous and targeted. If I click the preview button in GitHub, then only that element is being loaded, and it doesn't stop or slow down any other part of the UI. A good UI should be asynchronous; ideally there shouldn't be any operation that locks or slows down the UI. If an expensive operation is taking place, place a busy notifier on the affected elements. Having a wait cursor for the whole application or window seems an anachronism.