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Tailscale's new macOS home

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Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#181

Post by kemayo »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #148
alin23 wrote: post #53

The notch hiding menubar icons is such a stupid problem to have. I waste hours every week trying to help people who send me frustrated emails because they bought one of my apps and they say: "it doesn't launch" or "why doesn't it have any interface??" No amount of FAQ will help these people. And this also results in hasty refund requests and even worse, chargebacks that take 2x the amount the users paid out of my poc…

The reason things are this way is that in Apple’s view, third party devs are effectively misusing menu items. Originally it wasn’t even possible for third parties to add new menu extras using public APIs. That was something reserved for Apple. Third party devs had to use a tool called MenuCracker. When Apple finally added the API used now, the intention for it was for full fat GUI programs to provide ephemeral menu i…

> Personally I think they should offer a way to extend the Control Center and push devs who want persistence towards that.

They actually added that in macOS 26. Just like on iOS, apps can now offer custom actions that you can add into the control center.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#182

Post by daveidol »

corlinp wrote: post #153
richardlblair wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was always my biggest gripe about using a mac, the OS that "just works". I ended up a bunch of commands I had to run and a stack of apps I needed to install for it to feel usable.

When I set up a Mac I have a short list of things that I need to install. When I set up Windows I have a much longer list of things that I need to un-install. I much prefer the former.

Well said!

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#183

Post by longislandguido »

philistine wrote: post #161
dangus wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have pointed out this stat before: Global user base Mac: 100 million (2024) PC gamers: 900 million A lot of Mac enthusiasts seem to scoff at the idea that someone buying a laptop wants it to be able to play some kind of video games. Apple can make the greatest computer in the world but for many customers the fact that it can only run ~5% of games or whatever is a dealbreaker. The Neo can play many games on some lev…

The ability to run without a fan is not a problem; it's a feature. Would you want a fan in your phone?

When he said games did you assume he meant Solitaire?

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#184

Post by longislandguido »

dddddaviddddd wrote: post #164
JSR_FDED wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you're 100% having to muck about with sketchy kexts Apple has replaced kexts (kernel extensions) with a user-space alternative for many years now

Hence > that almost certainly will break in the next OS release My scanner has drivers available for download that date from 2015 with no updates since then.

My solution to this very problem was to virtualize an ancient OS X (was not easy) so I could continue to use a perfectly good scanner.

Though I'm certain you've raised this issue before, and it was met with "I've never heard of anyone needing a scanner, you must be doing something weird, have you tried taking a picture of it with your iPhone(R) instead?"

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#185

Post by longislandguido »

fragmede wrote: post #133
longislandguido wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does every Mac complaint thread since the beginning of time always feature the "I've never heard of this so it must not be a legitimate issue" guy?

Ah, but does it work when mice are using the computer, or is it only when humans are.

Are these mice the one-button species?

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#186

Post by dcrazy »

Back in the Mac OS X public beta days (and maybe even into 10.0–10.1?), apps that are nowadays shoved into the menu at used to live in the Dock. I kinda think I prefer that.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#187

Post by cosmic_cheese »

kemayo wrote: post #181
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason things are this way is that in Apple’s view, third party devs are effectively misusing menu items. Originally it wasn’t even possible for third parties to add new menu extras using public APIs. That was something reserved for Apple. Third party devs had to use a tool called MenuCracker. When Apple finally added the API used now, the intention for it was for full fat GUI programs to provide ephemeral menu i…

> Personally I think they should offer a way to extend the Control Center and push devs who want persistence towards that. They actually added that in macOS 26. Just like on iOS, apps can now offer custom actions that you can add into the control center.

I haven’t looked into it, but does it allow arbitrary UI? It sounds like they’re just buttons that trigger a single action, which isn’t sufficient for replacing menu items.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#188

Post by seabrookmx »

skavi wrote: post #40
seabrookmx wrote: post #25

> We’re working on a comparable UI for Windows devices As a Linux user and fan of good GUI apps, it always bums me out I'm stuck with the CLI-only options for apps like Tailscale. Even for a simple tray icon I have to resort to buggy GNOME extensions. I understand the fragmented ecosystem and small user-base on the desktop Linux side make it hard to justify, but I hope that changes one day!

this may have been what you were referring to with “ buggy GNOME extensions”, but in case it wasn’t: https://tailscale.com/docs/features/client/linux-systray

It wasn't actually! I've been using a third party extension that tries to provide a similar tray icon (after moving from a different extension that doesn't support my version of GNOME) but it's really flaky. I'll try this. Thanks for the tip.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#189

Post by drdaeman »

richardlblair wrote: post #50
corlinp wrote: post #27

Every time I get a new Mac, I run these commands to reduce the spacing between menu bar icons. Lets you fit at least 2x the number of items in the menu bar. ``` defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 2 defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int 2 ```

This was always my biggest gripe about using a mac, the OS that "just works". I ended up a bunch of commands I had to run and a stack of apps I needed to install for it to feel usable.

nix-darwin solves a lot of those pains. Not all of them, but it makes initial setup a lot simpler and faster.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#190

Post by tshaddox »

paxys wrote: post #24
jedberg wrote: post #20

This seems like a good place to ask: What is the current state of the art for connecting back to my home network while remote? I want: access to my home server ability to stream US TV when abroad (by exiting from my home network) ability to make it easy for others with non-tech backgrounds to connect with their devices (parents, kids, etc) ability to have remote linux servers connect automatically on boot. This one i…

Tailscale will enable all of this. Set up a US device as an exit node, and configure other devices to proxy through it.

For $5 a month you can also get a Mullvad VPN exit node. It’s billed directly through Tailscale which makes it painless.

When I’m outside the U.S. I get much better speeds through the Mullvad exit node than through my (U.S.) home exit node. I’m not sure why, since my home internet is gigabit fiber and I confirmed that I had a direct connection (no DERP relay).

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