This is great. Gonna give it a try couple of days. The first thing that I've noticed, on lighter bg the contrast between the buttons (minimised) and the bar's bg is quite low. It looks like a single bar when there's a light bg. Would have been fantastic if there was an option to high contrast option (Also my eyesight is quite crap, which doesn't help either)
Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
221–230 of 327 posts
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#222Hi there! I really like this project and just bought a copy for myself.
It would be great to allow offline activation - as others have pointed out, using the application after the activation servers may go away is something that is useful for an application like this.
Also, the application viewer seems a bit clunky - please allow sorting pinned items via drag & drop, or always sort them alphabetically. A mouse over highlight effect is also missing.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#223Hi there! I really like this project and just bought a copy for myself. It would be great to allow offline activation - as others have pointed out, using the application after the activation servers may go away is something that is useful for an application like this. Also, the application viewer seems a bit clunky - please allow sorting pinned items via drag & drop, or always sort them alphabetically. A mouse over h…
Hey, thanks for purchasing it!
I'll take a look into the app launcher issues that you are pointing out. The drag and drop feature will be implemented later this week in the bar window list and in the app menu as well.
I'll research a bit into the offline activation methods as well to see what best suits this app.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#224This is great. Gonna give it a try couple of days. The first thing that I've noticed, on lighter bg the contrast between the buttons (minimised) and the bar's bg is quite low. It looks like a single bar when there's a light bg. Would have been fantastic if there was an option to high contrast option (Also my eyesight is quite crap, which doesn't help either)
OP here - I think I need to focus more on accessibility features in the next few releases. Could you please post a screenshot of how boringBar looks to you right now?
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#225I went through a similar transition and ended up with yabai + skhd for tiling. The Dock pain is real. One thing I'd love to see: integration with tiling WMs. Being able to see which windows are in the current yabai Space, and maybe even switch between stacked windows, would be amazing. Does boringBar play nicely with yabai or similar tools?
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Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#226That's nice! It feels polished and feature-full, but like others commented, I'm not seeing myself paying for this.
On my end, I managed to first develop an open-source alternative status bar based on Übersicht (https://github.com/Jean-Tinland/simple-bar) 6 years ago and then a standalone rewrite in Swift (https://github.com/Jean-Tinland/a-bar) if anyone is interested. Though both bars require yabai or AeroSpace to work.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#227I am running the trial and it seems great except for two crucial deviations from Dock behavior. Clicking on a button ("chip") does not bring the associated window to the foreground. It does work when I hover over a chip and then click the preview of a specific window. But nothing happens when I directly click the button in the bar. The issue occurs regardless of whether an app has 1 or >1 windows open. In the latter…
Clicking on the chip and not having the window come to the foreground is a fairly weird issue. Do you have anything else installed that uses Accessibility permissions? On the other observation, it works this way because apps on macOS do not usually quit when you close all of their windows. If you start an already open app again when it has no windows open, it will bring the app into focus, and you will see it in the…
Besides boringBar, the following are enabled: Claude, Dropbox, MacWhisper.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#228Earlier quoted context omitted.
That statement makes no sense. X11 works fine on macOS and running it in rootful mode with Gnome essentially works the same way it would work on an OS that uses the Linux kernel. Granted, it will not integrate with anything hardware-wise by itself (unless there's a package for it - if not, macOS still handles it, and Aqua/Quartz will keep running in the background anyway), but if what you wanted was something that is…
There is a major difference between losing your power and having to constantly fight the UI to keep your power. And, for example, window management on Mac is clunky as all hell.
Which is why I wrote about running the exact UI that was referenced, with the same window server, window manager and desktop environment.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
That’s an economic concept, not a dig at consumers. It’s well known (hell, there’s a nobel laureate for it) that humans are irrational when it comes to economics.
Was the thesis of the fake Nobel recipient that consumers are irrational specifically because they prefer one-time purchases to subscriptions? Otherwise I'm not really sure what the relevance of bringing it up in this very specific context it.
Ok, so you prefer to act like an idiot. Good luck.
Re: Show HN: boringBar – a taskbar-style dock replacement for macOS
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would not. I'm not paying $40 for a taskbar replacement. And not for two years of updates and a two device limit on top. Maybe if it was $10, I could consider it. Prices for macOS apps are insane in my opinion. Everyone wants to charge yearly or every two years now too.
Honestly, I have tried to really cut down on my usage of 3rd-party dependencies when possible. In a way, it's kind of freeing. Whatever I still need, I write myself. If I cannot write it, then I try to find something FOSS. If I find nothing, then I consider purchasing something. For example, I am rolling my own window manager (that needs some much needed TLC). I ditched Alfred for Spotlight. Though Alfred is better,…
I fresh install to give myself a different perspective when I feel like I have too many 3rd party solutions to problems that no longer exist. Spotlight is better and I only casually use my macbook nowadays, so I don't need the power of Alfred. I don't need dock extensions because Stage Manager is mediocre but works well enough for the browser, chat / music apps, and whatever document I'm working with at the time.