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.

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al_borland 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

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 behavior of the OS in conflicting ways.

My goal is genially not to have anything running in the menubar that isn't out of the box from the OS. I had a similar desire with the system tray on Windows (though it was more difficult on Windows due to some hardware requiring it).

Work is the only place I have an issue, because they install a bunch of security agents that all want a spot in the menubar, even though they never need me to interact with them or know what they're doing. Those agents sitting up in the menubar tend to be the reason my system has slow downs or issues. Though the slowdowns have gone away since moving to M1. On Intel my fan used to run all the time. Now I'm just left with the weird issues they cause.

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sosborn 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

TBF - It still does "just work," The fact that it doesn't completely fit into your (and my) preferences doesn't really change that, and if that's the standard, then everything will fall short of it.

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oaweoifjwpo 3 hours ago | parent [-]

If the icons are just hidden and you can't find them in order to use the programs you have running, that's not "just working". That's broken functionality. Windows has solved this with the overflow menu for literally decades.

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tokioyoyo 22 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I’ve been solely mac user for the past 15+ years, and have no idea what this thread is talking about. I think, as the other person said, we make assumptions on what’s a problem for others, when in reality, it’s not a big deal.

	▲	longislandguido a minute ago \| parent [-]
		Why does every Mac complaint thread since the beginning of time always feature the "I've never heard of this so it must not be a legitimate issue" guy?

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cpach 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I vastly prefer Mac over Windows, but I think you have a good point. This is definitely one area where Microsoft found a more reasonable solution.

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dangus 16 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It will not only cut off icons but the menus for applications when they have a lot of them. There is no way to fix it except to change your scaling or connect a second monitor.

I should save this thread for every time someone tries to tell me that Windows is a horrible operating system that is a major reason to not buy a computer when I say things like "The MacBook Neo isn't that good of a deal and you can totally find a Windows laptop in the price range that's built well enough, has similar performance/battery life (or better)/trackpad, and leaves you with more RAM, storage, and I/O."

I've literally picked out laptops that are clearly better buys than the Neo/Air and people will tell me things like "well then you're stuck with Windows" or "but you'll have firmware problems" and then we have to remember that Apple has had plenty of that in their past.

How about those Nvidia GPUs that would fail inevitably in older MacBook Pros?

Or the butterfly keyboard?

	▲	odo1242 a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		Do you have a suggestion for a Windows laptop that’s a better buy than the MacBook Neo? I kinda want a Windows laptop (for being able to run simple games, mostly) but not sure which one

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quietsegfault 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have never seen anyone with enough menu bar icons to have them hide, nor have I known anyone who ran into that problem. It’s a bug that should be fixed, but I just don’t think it’s as big of a deal as it’s made out to be.

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sensanaty 2 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

It only takes like 6 extra apps for items to start being hidden, it's really not that rare of an occurrence.

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oaweoifjwpo 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Just because you have never personally seen a bug occur doesn't mean it isn't a problem.

This very article is about how Tailscale frequently gets reports of them being hidden.

And I personally have had the icons hidden. My work laptop has a lot of stuff running on it (much of it is mandatory: VPN, custom company processes, Google Drive, etc) and combined with my personal preferred programs (f.lux, etc) it occasionally hits the limit and goes under the notch.

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Kaliboy 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Did we read the same article? It literally drove them to create a new application.

	▲	oaweoifjwpo 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		This is the fairly standard Apple defensework where "it just works, but if it doesn't work it's probably not a real problem" despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

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2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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inopinatus 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"I don't have any experience with that problem, it follows that no-one has that problem".

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freedomben 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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)

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2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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inopinatus 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That phrase "just works" speaks more to vertical integration than it does to any more specific claim about UX, alignment to preferences, or immediate productivity, and to demonstrate how foundationally this is encoded, you implicitly alluded as much in that opening phrase "a mac, the OS" that directly conflated the hardware and the software.

Frankly, I prefer the mac because there's so little arsing around with drivers. Not out of any blinkered misconceptions about quality, usability, or an otiose love for Apple or their products otherwise.

	▲	longislandguido 34 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> Frankly, I prefer the mac because there's so little arsing around with drivers All Windows laptops come preinstalled, there's no arsing about with drivers there either. Unless you install the bare OS from scratch. Apple bundles the drivers for their hardware with their OS. Good luck with plugging in anything non-Apple branded or not using standard USB audio or Ethernet CDC and you're 100% having to muck about with sketchy kexts that almost certainly will break in the next OS release. You can do this for Windows too, that's how most corporate images are built. One image and 30 different laptop models, that's how it's done in every competently run megacorp IT department. Do you think some poor technician is manually loading drivers onto every Windows laptop?