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

great work! i'm started trying it and it seems like it solves a bunch of issues i have with the native docker.

the only problem that i have, right now, is colors: i usually have everything in my computer as black[0], so the white highlight on the bar is so jarring! being able to replace that with something else is going to be great.

https://i.imgur.com/OqnZCUT.png

I would like to use this product but I use 5 Macs regularly. I do not see an option to use it on more than 2 Macs. Is there a solution for a user with more than 2?

I've always setup my macbooks with a custom json config using https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/ to avoid the dock, but couldnt convince any friends to give it a try since its high effort, i guess

so i hacked together https://dockshortcut.com really quick and that kinda made the difference in how some people use their macbooks these days, but tough market, nobody likes paying for something that should come out of the box

you should probably reconsider asking for a subscription, people barely wanna pay once, even if it would save them weeks a year

Have you heard the good gospel of Asahi?

https://asahilinux.org/

I 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?

Actually pretty good. I wish it would not minimize applications when switching. (a sick workaround would be to hide single window applications)

Looks really cool. just downloaded it will definately give it a try. nice UI btw

Trial link is giving a 404

This is tremendously cool

Remember when we bought software, and owned the right to use it in perpetuity? Good times those were. Now fucking taskbars are SaaS. There is no end to rent-seeking behaviour. In a decade or two, I suppose we will not only be renting the right to use our computers, but also the mouse and keyboard will be time-gated rentals as well. Mousewheel and numpad only available on the Pro subscription, of course.

Nice first impression butI was VERY surprised that there are no Themes at all? Or maybe a config.json ? The default theme looks very dark, and I would use something like to make my life easier, not harder...

edit: also it didn't work for me - I can tap buttons but the corresponding window won't open.

edit2: after a restart it did work...

I know you’ve received plenty of feedback about the subscription being a dealbreaker. There would be no point in me adding that but I would say that I could see myself paying $50 for one version of this without upgrades. Maybe half price for upgrades if you have an existing license. So I probably wouldn’t necessarily mind paying $25 per year per se if it’s not a subscription. Like many other others here, I’m just not gonna go there.

Good luck!

Small issue: Can't do cmd+a in the search bar and I'd like it more if the hitbox for the "start menu" extended fully to the edges.

I am using BoringNotch, which is great. Is this somehow related?

I am trying it but the colors don't seem correct. I cannot read the title of any other tab except currently selected one: https://imgur.com/a/t0BDxuC

PS: How to contact developer? I cannot find email.

Neat idea!

Personally, I like the macOS dock so this wouldn't be for me. $10/year for a dock replacement is a bit much to ask for too, especially since this is a price per seat model. Maybe $15-20 as a one-time purchase per license? One of my favourite apps in the past few years is antinote and that is a one time fee of $5.

I’m totally a target audience here. I’ve been trying so many different app switcher applications. My latest favorite one is “flashspace”. I would love that kind of functionality be part of this too if possible. Regardless I’ll give it a shot for a few weeks and see if it works for me. Thanks for sharing!

Back in the days when I used to use windows, they way I navigate through the task bar was window key + app index (manually sorted). Same way i navigate through tabs in my browser. This, of course, can be my own ergonomic feature, but using a task bar without this feature feels clunky.

And since full-screen apps on MacOS work on different workspaces, and the bar is context-dependent to the workspace - this means that I have to choose to work on a maximized window or have it in my taskbar. It will be nice if there is an option to consolidate all the apps. Static, sticky, salad.

And damn, I used to pay $100-200 for an entire OS, now its $40 for a taskbar. - "Old man yells at inflated clouds"

I'll be trying this! I used uBar for a long time, and more recently taskbar as uBar was too buggy to ignore. My main issue with Taskbar currently is that it sits over non windowed fullscreen apps (eg Steam games). Other than that I prefer the design on yours based on a quick look through the page.

I‘d be happy to pay for an upgrade if future macOS changes break the functionality of this - cool - app, which would require the creator to update it. More work, which I would pay for. But not a subscription, sorry!

Plus, I‘d prefer to (but that’s impossible?) install via the App Store, to avoid a black box.

Glad to see the pricing was adjusted! Something that would make this perfect for me would be autohide on the bar. I'm trying to keep static UI lements to a minimum on an oled display.

I'm not sure this is for me, but I wanted to say I Appreciate the little design touches and thought that is on display in this app. Great work!

I'm not the target audience for this, but THANK YOU for putting a description in the title, instead of letting me eagerly click it thinking it might be a speeds/feeds/stickout calculator for a lathe boring bar or something.

Looks great but even $40 for a perpetual license with only two years of updates still seems excessive.

Taskbar, Uber, etc. cost less and have unlimited updates. How is this better?

Downloaded to give it a try, but one feature is missing, I can't rearrange open windows. Is there a wayt to do that?

Anyone who has watched Ubar constantly break across macOS updates will understand the point of a subscription fee. It’s non trivial to maintain and I doubt vibe coding is gonna help.

I appreciate a good UX improvement, and I respectfully appreciate you building this for your own use case.

But Dawg? Really!

Take a look to Jotego's (mister FPGA) business model. I was the main maintainer of a distro so I can say that That's not going to work. Also I'm in love with your style.

Why is the personal licence $20/yr and the business licence $3.49/yr? Unless I'm misreading the pricing here.

This would be perfect for me if it docked to the side in a vertical orientation, like Firefox tabs, or Windows XP.

This looks really nice!

I really like this panel, do you have a linux version config or dot files that is similar looking?

Neat! I would love to also be able to give desktops names

it looks great, looks clean, seems like people want it.

nobody's paying a subscription for a taskbar. The business model here is a one time sale.

I can’t find it now, but there was a Start Menu/Taskbar for Mac OS 9 era Mac’s as well. It was bizarre.

Why does it need to talk to facebook.com, ntp.org, aws.com, cloudflare.com, google.com, and windows.com?

Forced subscription = immediate uninstall; would have gladly paid a decent one-time fee for the app.

Already got indexed by Brave Search's AI: boringBar: A modern Dock replacement specifically for macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later that organizes windows by desktop, provides thumbnail previews, and includes unread notification badges. It requires a one-time $40 personal license after a 14-day free trial

Amazing! I've been testing for the last hours

Fantastic work, but ubar is going to eat your lunch with that subscription

Nice attempt, but too slow for me

Just adding to the pile to say that the subscription kills it for me.

It looks really good, what makes this different from uBar?

having to click somewhere is not a shortcut, seriosly who the hell switches the desktops with mouse scrolling or clicking? there is a real shortcut for that

Subscription ? Big No

Crazy that this popped up right now. I am a lifelong Linux desktop user, primarily on KDE Plasma the past 10 years or so. I'm a Virtual Desktops devotee because I swap back and forth between multiple projects/clients. I recently acquired a Mac and found, as you said, the Dock is "app centric" and that this inherently cripples Spaces / Mission Control.

- Clicking things in the Dock or elsewhere keep taking me off my current Space. There's a setting that supposedly stops this (disable "When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for that application"), but that only affects affirmative clicking in the Dock. If you try to open a file it will still seek out an existing instance of that app and take you to another Space if it finds it there.

- Spaces are named "Desktop 1", "Desktop 2", etc. I need to give them custom names that represent the actual work I do in them.

This is by no means a complete list. My overall impression is that Spaces and their various settings are a bolt-on, with requirements built by committee to resolve the tension between the users who want virtual desktops and the users who want nothing to change.

@OP, here are my suggested improvements based on a morning's worth of use:

1. If you have clicked on the Applications button to raise that menu, clicking on the button again should collapse it. Right now it just re-raises it.

2. Let's say one of my apps is a messaging app like Slack or Signal, and there's a new incoming message. In KDE Plasma or GNOME, the taskbar or docked representation of the app will visually change (as does your chip) but more importantly there's a toast-style an on-screen notification. I'm actually not sure what happens on the Mac by default when you're using the Dock. Regardless, I'm finding I'm missing incoming messages because I'm not scanning boringBar for the visual indicator that a new message has come in.

3. Allow us to give our own names to the Spaces/Desktops.

4. Provide an option for rendering the Space/Desktop switcher as an array of chips so we can switch with one click, rather than the current two clicks (one to raise the pop-up menu, two to choose the desktop). The lack of (3) and (4) has me sticking with "Deskspace" for now, but also because Deskspace parks the desktop switcher in the menu bar, which is similar to how I have it working on KDE Plasma.

5. As another user pointed out, the bar is... dark. Changing on/off Frosted Glass isn't sufficiently changing the visual appearance.

Was looking for this exact solution.

You want me to pay for your UI coding subscription?

Show me a side-dockable vertical taskbar, circa Win XP thru 7 style - and a lifetime license for 10 years' worth of the subscription, which you may no longer even support by then - and you will have closed a sale.