Many things:

• Awful DRM
• Abysmal customer service
• Much higher prices than Steam
• Region-locked sales
• Launching games through web browsers (seriously).

And yet, I would be fine with all of this, if EA weren't forcing me to use their crappy service to play Mass Effect 3. They can make as terrible a service as they like, but giving themselves exclusive games is spiteful and stupid (they will lose a great many sales by not putting it on Steam, many of them to piracy).

Personally, I just don't see the point of Origin as an end user.

I understand why EA set it up on the other hand. They don't want to give sales to Valve through Steam and would rather eliminate the middle man and sell their games via DD directly from their own servers for maximum profits. And in all fairness, who wouldn't? Considering EA owns/publishes quite a few major franchises I'm sure they'd just as soon keep as much of that revenue to themselves.

As for why I don't like Origin as a user, again it feels completely unnecessary. Since it only covers EA games, it's always going to be limited as a service which I'm using here as a term by the loosest possible definition. For the most part, it feels more like a form of DRM even though it is more comparable to Steam (which many claim is nothing but the *ultimate* DRM).

I particularly didn't like the game launching through browser either. The first time I launched BF3 my first thought was "wait, are you f***ing kidding me?" 

I should add though that it only launches through Internet Explorer when you're connected online. Origin does have an offline mode that goes straight to your game instead. Of course I'm guessing like 90+% of anyone playing BF3 is doing so for the online. 

As far as I know, Steam also has region-locked sales. My only experience was when I tried to buy a game on my account while I was in Canada, and the order wouldn't process. That was back in 2008 so maybe now you can buy games through Steam when you're out of the account's country of origin, I don't know. 

Pricing depends. As a new service, it's somewhat expected. Plus they don't have any old games, which are typically the ones practically being given away on Steam when they have their sales. In the futue, I'd expect Origin to match the prices of any game being offered on Steam if they don't want to lose sales. Over the holidays I picked up Arkham City for $25 and BF3 for either $30 or $40; I forget, but they do have sales. Alice was $10 I think. 

That's not true.

A unified service like Steam and Game for Windows Live can work (at least in principle) but a service that is tied to just one publisher can not work. EA is a big publisher but they still dont have enuff games for a customer to be bothered to make an account.

Although it's true that Origin doesn't only cover EA games, it has a much smaller library than Steam.

What's so bad about it? It has yet to produce one positive quality where it matches, let alone beats, other services similar to it. The Origin system actually works so badly that I simply cannot play a game that I absolutely love simply because it almost never works properly.

Kantor summed it up nicely.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I don't like it, I hated steam when it first came out.
Steam is better.

But, at the same time, it's silly to think that EA shouldn't try to create a service to compete with steam.
They should do a better job with it.  The 2 services on the computer doesn't really bother me more than the requirenment to have a propriety program (steam or origin), because you can just turn it off.

I'd rather play mass effect 3 with origin, than not play ME3 at all on PC. And I think that's what EA's counting on.

 I'd have originally much rather played Half Life 2 without steam. Obviously it worked great for valve, EA is trying, and so far not doing a great job. 

I think it gets extra hate because it's EA.

Obviously yeah, but they just added games from a few other publishers.
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/24/ea-adds-cd-projekt-red-paradox-and-nine-other-publishers-to-or/
http://www.joystiq.com/2011/10/27/ea-adds-warner-bros-capcom-and-thq-to-origin/

Sure they will add some more soon.

I'm not sure I agree with some of the sentiments in this thread.

My experience with Origin so far has been stellar.

At first I purchased FIFA 10 to play with a friend. The install failed and it refused to recognize my key. Fine, I'll contact Origin support. First feather in Origin's cap: they have live support! Granted, they aren't the most knowledgeable people out there, but they are available immediately! Contrast that to Steam, where you send an email and receive a reply a week later.

Anyhow, I raised this issue with Origin support, and no amount of uninstalling and restarting the computer worked. What does Origin do? They give me another code for FIFA 10! I tried this, and it also refused to work. I contacted them again, and after verifying that I was unable to get the game to run, they gave me The Sims 3 for free as compensation for the hassles I've endured thus far.

This all happened in the office. When I got home, I tried installing FIFA on my gaming rig - and it worked! So Origin gave me another working version of FIFA 10 (I must be the only person who has duplicate games on their account) and The Sims on top of that.

I consider that exceptional technical support - even if they were unable to resolve my issue, they went out of their way to help.

The second feather in Origin's cap is logging in multiple computers: While with Steam it's a pain in the ass - you have to turn off WiFi and / or disconnect the LAN cable, then hope that Steam has kept your login information stored, otherwise you are forced to go back online to be able to play the games you purchased; really? - with Origin, when I login to another computer it asks me, very kindly, thank you, that if I login to my account on one computer the other computer will be put in offline mode. When I go on to the other computer, I will see a message saying that I am in offline mode but that I can still play my games offline.

Contrast the courteous, automated and streamlined approach Origin offers users with multiple computers with the draconian Steam service where you have to disable your internet connection!

Those two reasons alone put Origin above Steam for me in terms of end-user service. Don't get me wrong - I love Steam, and have over 250 games on it. However, that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement.

In many ways having Origin as a serious competitor is of benefit for all of us, for it may just force Steam to improve their service and that's a win for all gamers.