I am not the target audience for macOS menu bar managers like Ice. You can drag-reorder icons in pure macOS without any third-party software, and the additional options seem unnecessary.
Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
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Re: Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
#22I know some people like it, but I find the top menu bar on a mac extremely non ergonomic. The argument goes that it's an easy spot to hit: Just move your mouse to the top. But they forget that in order to use the menu bar you have to activate the app! In other OS's, if you want to pick an item from an inactive app, just click - it will activate the app, and pick the item from the menu bar at the same time. Not so wit…
People like the menu bar because of the global menu - no more hunting and pecking for a print or save option, with every application using disparate or bespoke UI kits having those aforementioned options be different places both visually, physically and logically.
MacBooks are absurdly overpowered as a layman’s computer, but the global menu means they only need to learn the OS once.
Re: Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
#23I am not the target audience for macOS menu bar managers like Ice. You can drag-reorder icons in pure macOS without any third-party software, and the additional options seem unnecessary.
Why would anyone write comment like this? Like does it add anything to the discussion? Who cares that you dont use menubar apps so you dont need Bartender.
Re: Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
#24Seems like one of those apps ripe for Sherlocking by Apple. Which would also solve screen recording privacy issues.
Re: Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
#25Not the submitter, but I installed this a couple days ago to replace Bartender. For those not following along at home, the Bartender author just sold it to some sketchy app mill. It’s an app that legitimately requires screen recording permissions to work. I trusted the old author’s reputation. I have zero trust in the own owner. Ice isn’t as good yet. It’s not nearly so configurable. For example, you can either hide…
From the blog:
I understand that the transition hasn’t been entirely smooth. Recently, there was a change in the signing certificate for the app, and unfortunately, this change wasn’t communicated properly to you, our loyal users.
https://www.macbartender.com/b5blog/A-New-Chapter-for-Barten...
previous discussion on the hidden sales:
Re: Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
#26Offtopic, but am I the only person surprised how badly Apple stalled when it comes to window management and UX on MacOS?
I feel that today, as a power user/professional, MacOS wouldn't be usable without applications like Bartender, external window manager such as Rectangle/Divvy etc. I feel strong attraction coming from yabai, but disabling SIP is too much for me.
Personally I'm reaching the point where I'd migrate to Linux ONLY for the user experience (I live in Emacs most of the time anyway, and there I could get some minimal WM on top of it, I guess).
Re: Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
#27If you just want to make all icons visible then the easiest way is probably to adjust "defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int " and "defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int ". Needs restart/logout to apply. Personally I set both to 6. Works well if you have a static number of icons.
Re: Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
#28Offtopic, but am I the only person surprised how badly Apple stalled when it comes to window management and UX on MacOS? I feel that today, as a power user/professional, MacOS wouldn't be usable without applications like Bartender, external window manager such as Rectangle/Divvy etc. I feel strong attraction coming from yabai, but disabling SIP is too much for me. Personally I'm reaching the point where I'd migrate t…
I totally agree. But it also seems like a lot of people don't. Frustratingly enough when discussions like that come up a lot of people respond with a "MacOS just works differently, you just need to get used to it" discussion killer.
Yeah, I know some design principles are different. That doesn't always mean they are better or couldn't be better.
In general I feel like UI/UX on MacOS for the most part has stagnated in the past decade or so. Where there has been evolution, it mostly has been things (poorly) ported over from iOS (system preferences for example).
This in contrast to other desktop platforms that have kept evolving and experimenting with other ways of working. Granted, not always improving things but often making things much better. Window management on windows 11 for example is just plain awesome imho. Certainly on wider screens or screens in portrait it is extremely powerful.
Everything I am working on MacOS I feel very limited in that area. Even with tools like Rectangle it still doesn't work as fluid as it does on windows.
Re: Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
#29Not the submitter, but I installed this a couple days ago to replace Bartender. For those not following along at home, the Bartender author just sold it to some sketchy app mill. It’s an app that legitimately requires screen recording permissions to work. I trusted the old author’s reputation. I have zero trust in the own owner. Ice isn’t as good yet. It’s not nearly so configurable. For example, you can either hide…
Argh, I didn't realize that the app was sold and I paid for the upgrade recently :( If I had known I wouldn't have.
I wonder if this could be a case for a chargeback, since the owner silently sold the app
Re: Ice – open source menu bar manager for macOS
#30This observation is tangential at best, so don’t upvote it.
But HN remains simply unparalleled in finding cool software that makes computers more fun day in, day out.
My internal jury is out on whether chatbots ranked through an elaborate mechanism (Instruct) via what amounts to what I wish I had never built on P(click) feed ranking.
But the Rust Terminal Renaissance? Nix? Flox? TailScale? Linear and Graphite and the golang community with things like fzf?
That shit makes my life better and more fun daily. And HN is where to hear about it first short of being really, really good at GitHub.