Subscription ? Big No
Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
51–60 of 327 posts
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#52I'll be trying this! I used uBar for a long time, and more recently taskbar as uBar was too buggy to ignore. My main issue with Taskbar currently is that it sits over non windowed fullscreen apps (eg Steam games). Other than that I prefer the design on yours based on a quick look through the page.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#53While I don't use a Mac as my primary anymore, I'm surprised I like the look of this! It actually looks quite Mac-like as well. Subscription is a big nope here, though. Especially for Mac software, I'd expect something where you pay for one major version, that is guaranteed to works on specific macOS versions, and gets minor bugfix updates too. But maybe the next macOS version requires a newer major version update to…
Please don't overindex on this comment OP, $10 a year is completely reasonable and the status quo they describe has killed so much software for so little benefit It's a subscription with extra steps and worse retention.
Why not offer both?
I personally dislike subscriptions to the point where I’d gladly pay more to own, and as this thread shows, I’m not alone.
So why not offer both?
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#54While I don't use a Mac as my primary anymore, I'm surprised I like the look of this! It actually looks quite Mac-like as well. Subscription is a big nope here, though. Especially for Mac software, I'd expect something where you pay for one major version, that is guaranteed to works on specific macOS versions, and gets minor bugfix updates too. But maybe the next macOS version requires a newer major version update to…
Agreed. The idea of having to pay for non-cloud based software in perpetuity forever, and having it stop working the very second I discontinue paying is a hard no for me.
OP, go with the JetBrains model. You can still offer a monthly subscription, but also provide an annual option where you pay up front for a year. After that year, it reverts to a fallback license for the specific version that was current during that period. It’s a good approach.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#55Thanks for sharing, added it to macOSWM.com: https://macoswm.com/wm/boringbar
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#56Ah, good old Apple, where for only $9.99 a month, you can experience what Linux offered for free 15+ years ago.
Not really true if what you want is a full macOS-style desktop experience with a few choice features from elsewhere bolted on. Linux desktops are predominantly Windows-style or minimal tiling thing, with the exceptions (GNOME, Pantheon) bearing only surface-level Mac aesthetics and being more comparable to superpowered tablet OS experiences.
Can you expand a bit on what you mean by "Superpowered tablet os"?
I'm tend to think of it as a server os with a DE, but as a backend developer I'm probably biased.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#57Wow, this looks very clean. I'm not the target audience, but if I was looking for a tool in this category, this would be highly attractive to me. Very subtle design that isn't distracting or busy. Well done! Edit: Ok, feedback. Please know that I'm a junky for independent Mac apps that I find interesting. This is interesting to me. This feedback is entirely meant to be constructive. I like the app so far and I want i…
Wow - thank you so much for the feedback. Let me go through this.
1. That might be a good idea. Do you think adjusting the size of the bar from the settings makes it any better?
2. That seems like a bug. There's glass theme for Tahoe - but I think restarting boringBar might help here. I'll check it out.
3. Fair. I did not think of this use case.
4. Thumbnails have a blue hue for active windows as of now. Could you please let me know how this could work better?
5. Right now the Tahoe glass/frosted switch only works on the bar. A glass revamp is in the works for people who like the Liquid Glass design language.
6. I faced the opposite issue to this during my testing - the thumbnails opened up fairly quickly in my case. I'll take note of it and will fix it in later versions.
7. Correct - first time is slower because of the excessively large number of apps. I'll try to reproduce this.
9. Good idea. Will implement this as well.
10. If you hover on the thumbnail window the close and minimize buttons will show up. Are you talking about the ability to quit the app and all of its windows entirely?
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#58> I built boringBar so I would not have to use the Dock
Does anybody really use the dock as a an app switcher? MacOS is built around shortcuts, alt-tab, show spaces, etc. The dock is there for starting apps – which you can also do via spotlight, and as a “favorites” list after you remove all the built-ins.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#59I use uBar for this: https://ubarapp.com but this looks like a nice lightweight alternative!
https://lawand.io/taskbar/ as well and https://noteifyapp.com/activedock/ , which is less extreme but has a start menu-like launcher option Both have one-time/lifetime purchase options. Taskbar is $25 one-time with a free but expiring older version. ActiveDock's one-time prices are $15 (1 year of updates, but usable forever) and $60 (lifetime updates).
Another alternative is https://hypercritical.co/switchglass/ ($10 upfront) really well done.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#60Just adding to the pile to say that the subscription kills it for me.