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Tailscale's new macOS home

tailscale.com

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Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#191

Post by corlinp »

galkk wrote: post #160
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 ```

Thank you! Do you have anything else as useful as this? THis is perfect

Well I suppose I can't miss out on the opportunity to plug my open-source menu bar app for voice-to-text in any app! Going on three years of development, believe it or not.

https://github.com/corlinp/voibe

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#192

Post by alsetmusic »

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…

It's annoying for end-users (and you), but why not display a window with a SUPERSHORT message explaining that MacBooks with a notch might hide the icon on the first launch? Have a button or link to explain more for people who want it.

Shouldn't have to, but it might mitigate some of the stuff a FAQ won't catch.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#193

Post by alsetmusic »

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.

I'd argue that for most people, the system defaults are fine. They don't have GUI controls / preferences for most of the stuff that power users and the HN crowd might need. However, they provide a path for people at those levels with CLI commands.

I think it's a fair balance. If you're running a bajillion things that add menu icons and you don't also care about computers enough to want to learn more, that's probably pretty frustrating. Most of the people I've met who care a lot about custom software have been curious about going further. Small sample size, just my two cents.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#194

Post by nagaiaida »

al_borland wrote: post #127
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.

The users who run into issues with menubar space would probably be well served to question if they really need all that stuff. The people with the most stuff up there tend to be the same ones who are always complaining about system slowness or weird issues... because they have 2 dozen utilities running in the background that they don't consider, which are all looking for CPU time or trying to change the default behav…

okay, i questioned whether i need all that stuff and i've landed on still wanting the same set of capabilities i currently have at the cost of what used to be a reasonable number of menu bar icons.

so now what

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#196

Post by faangguyindia »

comrade1234 wrote: post #55

There's so much tailscale shilling on hn and if you say anything neutral you're voted down.

tailscale offers many good things.

for example "tailscale" drop for free, share files between devices on your network

also https://tailscale.com/docs/features/tailscale-funnel which is cloudflare tunnel alternative, no more localtunnel or other things

so i am not surprized people like it as product, most good features are free.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#197

Post by alsetmusic »

lxgr wrote: post #143
al_borland wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The users who run into issues with menubar space would probably be well served to question if they really need all that stuff. The people with the most stuff up there tend to be the same ones who are always complaining about system slowness or weird issues... because they have 2 dozen utilities running in the background that they don't consider, which are all looking for CPU time or trying to change the default behav…

Ah, got it, I’m holding it wrong. > My goal is genially not to have anything running in the menubar that isn't out of the box from the OS. My goal is to use the apps I want to use, and if they are exclusively menu bar apps, what can I do about that? > The people with the most stuff up there tend to be the same ones who are always complaining about system slowness The cause for system slowness on my mac are too many b…

Basically the view I had twenty years ago vs the view I have now. After being a UI-extender explorer for some years, I became a system-as-delivered person. I'm now at a healthy (for me) mix. I have a bunch of icons in my menu bar and an app to keep that tidy.

I agree. My menu widgets aren't the primary cause if my computer feels slow. It's almost always a ton of browser tabs because I collect stuff to investigate later and I procrastinate removing them.

However, I also see the point of the commenter that a lot of people who have a bunch of shit in the menu bar might not be computer people who understand what they are or how they got there. In those cases, people exploring things they don't know how to remove might accumulate a lot of other crap that causes a slow system.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#198

Post by al_borland »

nagaiaida wrote: post #194
al_borland wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The users who run into issues with menubar space would probably be well served to question if they really need all that stuff. The people with the most stuff up there tend to be the same ones who are always complaining about system slowness or weird issues... because they have 2 dozen utilities running in the background that they don't consider, which are all looking for CPU time or trying to change the default behav…

okay, i questioned whether i need all that stuff and i've landed on still wanting the same set of capabilities i currently have at the cost of what used to be a reasonable number of menu bar icons. so now what

Tame the clutter, by using another menubar app to hide the overflow.

Examples:

https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden

https://www.macbartender.com/

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#199

Post by dpacmittal »

mort96 wrote: post #57
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…

It's such a simple problem to solve too: when there are too many menu bar icons, put them in an overflow menu. A single icon which contains a list of icons. And let me arrange which icons go into the top bar and which go into the overflow menu. Windows solved this many many decades ago with their system tray overflow menu. Browsers solved it too, by letting you put extension icons in an overflow menu. It's not hard.…

An even simpler solution is allow horizontal scrolling in the area.

Re: Tailscale's new macOS home

#200

Post by fogzen »

I don't see what this has to do with the notch. There's limited space in the menu bar. The overflow is hidden with or without the notch.

It is a bit weird that Apple hasn't provided a simple UI indicator that some icons are hidden. All that's needed is a dot with a tooltip that opens the settings to configure the menu icons.

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