Gnome 2 anyone?
Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
61–70 of 327 posts
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#62I'm with other people here. Make this a one-time purchase. If a major macOS update requires significant changes to keep the program working, make that a new version that people need to buy. A pretty standard way to keep people from feeling screwed if the break happens right after they bought your software is to give them the next version of your software for free if you release it within 1 year of their purchase.
I think you're actually likely to make more money that way because people will pass on adding yet another subscription to the pile they have already.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#63Personally, I like the macOS dock so this wouldn't be for me. $10/year for a dock replacement is a bit much to ask for too, especially since this is a price per seat model. Maybe $15-20 as a one-time purchase per license? One of my favourite apps in the past few years is antinote and that is a one time fee of $5.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#64Ah, 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.
Gnome is a pretty big exception lol. Considering it's the dominant DE.
Also tablet OS? Gnome is keyboard driven with tiling features OOTB...
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#65> 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.
I see a lot of people treat the dock like the Windows taskbar. They have it filled with as many apps as they can fit in it and leave it on-screen. I used to use the dock like that when I first started using macOS. Now it lives off the left edge of the screen and spends most of the time hidden. I can open any app I need with Spotlight and Mission Control, CMD+Tab, and moving between virtual desktops lets me move around my currently open apps.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#66[deleted]
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#67> 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.
I personally use Raycast, which has a Switch Windows global hotkey (Opt + W) that brings up a list of all active windows and apps. From there, you can start typing part of the window title and hit Enter to bring the corresponding window to the foreground.
Slightly related but AltTab is also a nice window switcher with built-in thumbnail previews if you prefer being able to tab by "window" and not by "process" (aka more like Windows).
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#68I’m totally a target audience here. I’ve been trying so many different app switcher applications. My latest favorite one is “flashspace”. I would love that kind of functionality be part of this too if possible. Regardless I’ll give it a shot for a few weeks and see if it works for me. Thanks for sharing!
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I 100% understand why you are using a subscription-based model. It makes sense, and I agree it's the most honest model given that you have to continually support it and you don't want to have to either over-promise on extended support, and offer refunds if you can't fulfill that promise. I just hate managing subscriptions. If you gave me the option to require manual subscription renewal, rather than auto-renewal, I w…
Fair point. The billing part of it is managed via Stripe - I'll put up the update/cancel subscription part on the Customer Billing panel soon.
Consider adding a lifetime option next to your sub options.
Consumer purchase behavior is highly impulsive and irrational. Businesses are very rational and like subs, but for many people, subscription fatigue is a real thing. Make the lifetime option 3-10x the annual rate; done. People will buy it. In my app I set it at 3x (but my annual sub is quite high; 6/mo, 30/y or 100 lifetime) but other apps, like Halide, have 12/y or 80 lifetime last I checked.
You get guaranteed revenue, and you get it upfront - better for cashflow. And you can always tell customers “if you don’t like subs buy the lifetime option”.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#70I use uBar for this: https://ubarapp.com but this looks like a nice lightweight alternative!
Both are under 10MB, So I don't think there would be much difference.
I meant more in terms of featureset. uBar has a lot of features and it takes a while to get a setup that works well.
Once it's set up, though, it's pretty rock solid.