Discussion

Escaping the notch: Tailscale's new macOS home

paxys: 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)? I know software quality has been going down in recent versions of macOS but this is absurd.

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

CharlesW: I personally found it confusing and un-Mac-like that quitting the GUI also now quits Tailscale. It was unfortunate to discover this while I was AFK.Please rethink it to work like apps like 1Password, Default Folder, Keyboard Maestro, Ice, etc., where I can always easily open the GUI, but the service must be intentially quit via either the GUI or the menu bar utility. The service should not be the configuration app.

sadeshmukh: Useful menu bar manager for Mac that lets you hide multiple icons behind a single icon: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice

al_borland: I always assumed the justification for the notch would be FaceID on Macs. However, it’s been many generations and we still don’t see it.

creddit: I love Tailscale so much and when I got added to what may have been an A/B test for the windowed app, I was even happier with it. It's a great improvement.

ajyey: I’m on mobile so don’t have the link handy but there’s a fork called Thaw that has been getting frequent updates

CharlesW: Oh! Thanks for that, I hadn't realized Ice's maintainer had stopped working on it: https://github.com/stonerl/Thaw

javawizard: > I know software quality has been going down in recent versions of macOSNote that this particular problem has existed for well over a decade. It's atrocious, but let's not pretend it's anything new.

Jcampuzano2: Yes it is genuinely infuriating that this is the case for a company that for so long was praised for their superior UX.This along with the tons of other paper cuts they've slacked on is tarring their brand.

jedberg: 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 serverability 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 is because I can't get OTA TV at home and want to set up a simple streaming box at someone else's house to do it that connects back to my house, so we can stream off all of our devices.I'm guessing tailscale will be a part of this setup which is why I ask here.

gib444: [delayed]

ctippett: Anyone know if this new windowed Tailscale view is enabled on the non-App Store version?I guess I'll find out soon enough once I update, but I didn't see any specific callout in the article.

djsavvy: Yes it is

latchkey: One of the mentioned apps, Bartender, was sold to a third party [0].[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40584606I think they've cleaned it up since then [1], but in the age of supply chain attacks, very concerning. Personally, even as a paying user of Bartender, I moved to the open source solution, at least I can watch the github for changes.[1] https://www.macbartender.com/b5blog/Lets-Try-This-Again/

InsideOutSanta: The other mentioned app, Ice, is unmaintained and no longer works on Tahoe. There's a maintained fork called Thaw.

gh02t: Hasn't menu bar applets crowding with no official overflow menu been a problem with MacOS with an obvious solution (add an overflow menu) for... 2+ decades now? I know third party solutions exist and it's kind of an edge case, but still, I remember encountering this back in the day on my ancient plastic Macbook.

re: It's much worse than it used to be. Before it was only really a problem with apps with a lot of menus, and you could access the items by switching to an app with fewer of them. Now, the notch takes up a lot of space, and you hit it really soon on a 14" display—I can only have maybe three third party menu applets on top of my collection of built-in ones before they disappear into the notch.

paxys: The macbook notch has existed for a decade?

simonh: Menu bar icons overflowing. The notch just makes it a problem quicker, and in an exciting new way.

nozzlegear: 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 menu items.Screenshot: https://imgur.com/8y0QbZNThe gap between "Run" and "Tests" is the notch, which I don't usually notice is there unless I'm in Rider.

corlinp: 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 2defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int 2```

potatocoffee: This is so much better, thank you for this.

danslo: The only reason I used Tailscale's menubar applet was to change exit nodes, I definitely don't need a whole UI.Guess I'll just stick with CLI only for now (via darwin-nix)

swiftcoder: Dude. How am I only just learning this? This needs to be plastered loudly over the internet

javawizard: No, menu bar items being hidden when there are too many of them has happened for a decade.The notch has just made menu bar space more scarce than it used to be.

richardlblair: 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.

freedomben: And for years and years when in discussions about Linux vs Mac, Linux was always slammed as having to be customized and "user's should never have to use the terminal" . (I agree with that, but even in 2014 I remember having to run terminal commands to tweak stuff to make it work more like I wanted to)

nightski: I just use WireGuard to connect my local network. I see no point in throwing a middleman into the mix.

Diti: This comment might be of interest to help you understand what Tailscale does that WireGuard cannot: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47064875

comrade1234: There's so much tailscale shilling on hn and if you say anything neutral you're voted down.