I'm going to guess that there is a status bar at the bottom, based on Windows GUI paradigms. But sure, it's not ideal. File-roller and Ark definitely do freeze

I'm going to guess that there is a status bar at the bottom, based on Windows GUI paradigms. But sure, it's not ideal. File-roller and Ark definitely do freeze up if you attempt to browse a large compressed tarball. Maybe greying out and showing the indefinite status bar is a better experience for you...but they're equally non-responsive.