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Tailscale's new macOS home

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Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#111

Post by dwedge »

paxys wrote: post #3

I haven't had enough menu bar icons to run into this but is it really the case that the notch just hides whatever icons happen to be behind it? Like, the OS doesn't handle this incredibly obvious edge case? Why not just put an overflow dropdown next to the notch (something Windows XP managed to figure out 25 years ago)? I know software quality has been going down in recent versions of macOS but this is absurd.

With some apps, I can't remember if tailscale is one I don't think so but another vpn we use is, it's even worse because opening them only creates the menubar icon. I spent 15 minutes trying to figure out why the vpn wouldn't start before I realised it was just hidden. No feedback at all

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#112

Post by [deleted] »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #8
paxys wrote: post #3

I haven't had enough menu bar icons to run into this but is it really the case that the notch just hides whatever icons happen to be behind it? Like, the OS doesn't handle this incredibly obvious edge case? Why not just put an overflow dropdown next to the notch (something Windows XP managed to figure out 25 years ago)? I know software quality has been going down in recent versions of macOS but this is absurd.

This is genuinely shocking that Apple is not handling that. Talk about quite a decline in one of their flagship products.

[deleted]

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#113

Post by lemming »

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…

Related question: how are people handling adding family members of varying technical abilities to your tailnets? Does each family member get a separate user so you can manage their access? For my immediate family I was just logging tailscale in as me on their devices, but that becomes a pain when they get logged out and need me to log in again before things go back to working.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#114

Post by whimblepop »

nozzlegear wrote: post #42
paxys wrote: post #3

I haven't had enough menu bar icons to run into this but is it really the case that the notch just hides whatever icons happen to be behind it? Like, the OS doesn't handle this incredibly obvious edge case? Why not just put an overflow dropdown next to the notch (something Windows XP managed to figure out 25 years ago)? I know software quality has been going down in recent versions of macOS but this is absurd.

I run into it when using Rider. I have text size increased on my Macbook and Rider has 8000 menu items, so my menu icons (all of which are default macOS, no third-party stuff) will be hidden to make room for Rider's stuff. I have to switch over to another workspace or window (i.e. away from Rider) if I want to access one of them. It's annoying but I'm not sure who I blame here; Rider I guess, for having a zillion men…

Why not blame Apple for having a busted-ass menu bar design? The behavior of "if the menu is busy, icons just disappear" and advice like "apps shouldn't rely on menu bar icons" are just bad ideas. They don't work well with how people use computers or how developers write apps. It's a bad design.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#115

Post by [deleted] »

bredren wrote: post #60
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…

This is not an unknown issue at the fruit co. Can anyone speculate on any rational if not good reasons for not solving this problem yet?

[deleted]

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#116

Post by Kovah »

harikb wrote: post #106
oaweoifjwpo wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a real problem, but when I complain about it I get told to just "hide the icons you don't care about" as if that's a solution. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47346079

I struggled with disappearing icons (like our company VPN client - which wasn't tailscale by the way) thinking the app was somehow "stuck". I would go kill the app, restart machine etc - during restart it would get fixed "automatically" by being an app earlier in the order! Took me months to figure out it was running afterall and just hidden by the notch. How hard is for apple to move the "least used icons" to a fold…

I would love to get a Windows-like overlay which collects all those damn menu icons. The least Apple should do is giving developers proper APIs to build that, but instead Tahoe broke so many menu bar managers it's not funny anymore. Ice, Sanebar, Bartender,... none of them work reliably.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#117

Post by ed_mercer »

> Apple could certainly make some changes to prevent this being an issue at all.

Why Apple still hasn't fixed this in 2026 baffles me. The fact that a company the size of Tailscale has to find workarounds for an Apple blunder like this speaks volumes about how terrible Apple's software management is.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#118

Post by SkyPuncher »

oaweoifjwpo wrote: post #62
paxys wrote: post #3

I haven't had enough menu bar icons to run into this but is it really the case that the notch just hides whatever icons happen to be behind it? Like, the OS doesn't handle this incredibly obvious edge case? Why not just put an overflow dropdown next to the notch (something Windows XP managed to figure out 25 years ago)? I know software quality has been going down in recent versions of macOS but this is absurd.

This is a real problem, but when I complain about it I get told to just "hide the icons you don't care about" as if that's a solution. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47346079

> If the programs you’re using refuse to let you remove those icons (or they keep re-adding them against your wishes) then those programs are bad citizens and you should probably stop using them!

I always love these types of arguments. Program does one thing bad so stop getting value of out it. lol.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#119

Post by Kovah »

airstrike wrote: post #109
giancarlostoro wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is genuinely shocking that Apple is not handling that. Talk about quite a decline in one of their flagship products.

macOS UI/UX has been declining at an accelerating pace with each new version. My only hope at this point is it gets _so_ bad it becomes an absolute meme and they get around to fixing it.

The weird duality of Apple: their hardware becomes better with each devices, while their software gets worse with each version.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#120

Post by fiddlerwoaroof »

harikb wrote: post #106
oaweoifjwpo wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a real problem, but when I complain about it I get told to just "hide the icons you don't care about" as if that's a solution. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47346079

I struggled with disappearing icons (like our company VPN client - which wasn't tailscale by the way) thinking the app was somehow "stuck". I would go kill the app, restart machine etc - during restart it would get fixed "automatically" by being an app earlier in the order! Took me months to figure out it was running afterall and just hidden by the notch. How hard is for apple to move the "least used icons" to a fold…

You can hold command and drag the icons under the notch to make the invisible ones eventually show
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