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Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS

boringbar.app

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Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS

#31

Post by a-ve »

a-ve wrote: post #28
sonofhans wrote: post #11

I am the target audience for this, from a UX and tech perspective. It addresses a problem I have and for which I periodically audition solutions. A subscription for a menu bar, though, kills it for me. I have apps on Macs that are over 20 years old. Some of those companies don’t exist anymore. I’m not going to risk paying $100 for a decade of your app and hope that your company, or your goodwill, stays around that lo…

I think that’s a fair question. My thinking is pretty simple: most people will probably choose the basic 2-device plan, which works out to about $0.85 per month. For an app like this, I think that is a reasonable price. Another reason is that a lot of Mac apps charge a one-time fee upfront, but then require paid upgrades later. In practice, that often ends up being similar to paying for a few years of ongoing support…

Adding on to this, apps that hook into window management and multi-monitor behavior can break in subtle ways over time. I ran into some of that with uBar on my setup, especially around multi-monitor use and waking from sleep, and I wanted boringBar’s pricing to match the expectation of continued support and fixes.

Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS

#34

Post by cactusplant7374 »

SyneRyder wrote: post #21
cactusplant7374 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a tiny market. Why would they bother if only 10 people will give them $10?

Apparently not that tiny, if a competitor has the same product priced at $30 and is currently on to version 4 after 12+ years in business!

They can set whatever price they want. And in business... for a micro saas? Is that just... waiting?

Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS

#35

Post by BoorishBears »

SyneRyder wrote: post #17

While 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.

Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS

#36

Post by cs02rm0 »

I'm not the target market for a subscription for this, but I found it quite buggy - I had multiple browser windows open and couldn't navigate to more than one. I couldn't navigate to other spaces either (clicking on them did nothing) and scrolling through the apps menu was laggy.

The screenshots on the website look nice though.

Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS

#37

Post by jorl17 »

Hi!

Over the years, I've tried several of these dock replacement apps. The one that stuck the longest was uBar (which I used with a setup similar to what you have here, emulating a "windows taskbar".

I've hit issues with most of them that forced me to move back to the normal Dock, but the number one issue has always been around notification badges: they always seemed to break in strange ways.

For example, can your dock show badges for iMessage if the app isn't open? Does it get the updated badge count without me opening it? Say I receive a SMS/iMessage, does it instantly show a counter next to the unopened pinned messages app? None of the other apps successfully did this when I tried them...

I don't know if there are other apps like this, but iMessage was by far the biggest offender. Perhaps system settings too?

P.S.: Congrats on the launch :)

P.P.S.: As others have said, I think a subscription for this will rub many people the wrong way (I am one of them). If I'm paying for a subscription, I expect this to be pretty bug-free and have at least monthly updates. I wouldn't ask this of other subscription-based apps, but for one that replaces a system-level component and wants me to keep paying, you bet I am holding it to a high standard! I've wasted too much money on other replacements and gotten very little value out of that.

Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS

#39

Post by comboy »

cactusplant7374 wrote: post #16
sonofhans wrote: post #11

I am the target audience for this, from a UX and tech perspective. It addresses a problem I have and for which I periodically audition solutions. A subscription for a menu bar, though, kills it for me. I have apps on Macs that are over 20 years old. Some of those companies don’t exist anymore. I’m not going to risk paying $100 for a decade of your app and hope that your company, or your goodwill, stays around that lo…

It's a tiny market. Why would they bother if only 10 people will give them $10?

I have the same bias as the parent. I'd rather pay $50 one time than $9 a year even if I throw it away after 4 years.

But the main reason I wouldn't install it despite being happy customizing linux is that it's yet another black box I need to trust and that knows way too much. It's really insane how much you need to compromise your security on macos to have a decent developer experience.

Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS

#40

Post by cosmic_cheese »

amarant wrote: post #27

Ah, 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.
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