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Show HN: I made a tool to improve Mission Control on macOS

29 points by ronyfadel 5y ago

edelhans 5y ago
I just switched from Linux to mac and not being able to close windows from mission control is super frustrating. Speaking of frustrating things on macOS - can someone tell me the reason why seemingly every single tiny utility app costs money? Just does not feel right to pay for features that ought to be system functionality.
- ellieh 5y ago
  I think they cost money because people put time and effort into making them, and being an alive human costs money. That + macOS users tend to be happy to spend a small amount of money to make their life easier
  - ktm5j 5y ago
    And that's totally fair, but this app is honestly rather trivial.. I think the surprising thing is that there are fewer Mac devs spending time making free software. I don't think Apple makes things better either by forcing devs to pay for a dev account to sell signed apps through official channels.
    - edelhans 5y ago
      Exactly. I really don't mind paying for apps in general, but with macOS even those tiny trivial utils are mostly not open source / free. I'm talking stuff like changing mouse acceleration, add a "new xxx file" right click menu to finder or closing apps in mission control. Compared to Linux (and even Windows) I really miss some sort of open source movement.
- serjester 5y ago
  If it’s too expensive, don’t buy it? Personally I think it’s awesome there’s tons of small creators making a living improving macOS. What you get in return is incredibly polished products.
  - ronyfadel 5y ago
    I fully agree (as someone who buys other small Mac apps as well). It’s a small product with a small price and you’d be supporting indie development. In a world where most paid software revenue is being made by big corporations, it makes even more sense to support indies.
- heresaPizza 5y ago
  Here you can find many FOSS utilities: https://github.com/serhii-londar/open-source-mac-os-apps https://github.com/serhii-londar/open-source-mac-os-apps Also, check r/apphookup on reddit for discounts (every day there’s a couple iOS apps that are made free and they’re often compatible with the Mac too thanks to Catalyst). If you have an iPhone you can use the Pager app and set monitors for the subreddit to receive notifications. Eventually you can pay for a SetApp subscription (10 whatever your value is + 3 for any additional device).
awayfromhome1 5y ago
If there is a feature which can help me cross all the windows but the current one (like we have for chrome tabs), it would be awesome.
- ronyfadel 5y ago
  Yes, using the keyboard “Close all other windows”
alin23 5y ago
Nice to see this here! I’ve used since the first day I subscribed to Setapp. Good job on creating what I feel is a functionality that should have been native in macOS!
- ncr100 5y ago
  Given past behavior, Apple is likely to clone it. And hopefully the OP makes $$$$ enough to cover that frustrating future moment.
  - ronyfadel 5y ago
    I’d say I make $$ from it, maybe not $$$$ :-) Sherlocking is all too real though
    - mthoms 5y ago
      I'm a user (via Setapp) and I love it. Can I suggest a feature? I'd love if mission control would open the desktops view in mission control sometimes. I think this used to be a toggle (or hidden pref?) in MacOS. I'm not sure if this is possible but it would help greatly.
      - ronyfadel 5y ago
        I’ll investigate
  - olyjohn 5y ago
    Based on my experience, it'll be broken with the next OS update and will require 50 workarounds to get it working again. This has happened with so many utilities that have made my Mac better to use, I am reluctant to try them out anymore.
    - ronyfadel 5y ago
      So far so good, MCP has been going strong for 3 releases
iRobbery 5y ago
I can imagine people using mission control this is nice, but personally i never used mission control and i wonder if i'm missing a particular reason?
- mediumsmart 5y ago
  I can't think of one either. I usually have one window/frame per app so command tab Q covers that. But I just saw the close feature here, maybe there is more to it. the reminders app he closes in the gif on the site looses its point in the dock but maps and numbers stay active - so is that just closing the window and not the app?
  - ronyfadel 5y ago
    You can do both, close a window or quit the app
    - randomluck040 5y ago
      I just downloaded the free version and I'm going to purchase a license. It's baffling how it is not possible to have the functionality to navigate with arrow keys in mission control really... How is the license managed? Can I take it with me when I get a new device and want to use it there?
  - randomluck040 5y ago
    If I’d only use one window/instance of each app, I wouldn’t mind. Since cmd+tab isn’t showing each instance without clicking up-arrow again when on the item, I prefer Mission Control.
randomluck040 5y ago
Is there an option to navigate the windows with the arrow keys with this?
- ronyfadel 5y ago
  Yes!
  - randomluck040 5y ago
    Like I can go to Mission Control and with the arrows I can move around and click enter? This is godsend, this was so disturbing and workflow disrupting for me when I’ve switched to macOS. I‘ll be back at my laptop at 28th and will try it out. Thanks!
cityzen 5y ago
Just a quick shout out to SetApp. I was very hesitant to use it but it is a pretty amazing service/platform. Very high quality apps for $100/yr is a steal.
- ronyfadel 5y ago
  Yes, I’m a user as well and as you said it’s a steal!

29 points by ronyfadel 5y ago

I just switched from Linux to mac and not being able to close windows from mission control is super frustrating. Speaking of frustrating things on macOS - can someone tell me the reason why seemingly every single tiny utility app costs money? Just does not feel right to pay for features that ought to be system functionality.

ellieh 5y ago
I think they cost money because people put time and effort into making them, and being an alive human costs money. That + macOS users tend to be happy to spend a small amount of money to make their life easier
- ktm5j 5y ago
  And that's totally fair, but this app is honestly rather trivial.. I think the surprising thing is that there are fewer Mac devs spending time making free software. I don't think Apple makes things better either by forcing devs to pay for a dev account to sell signed apps through official channels.
  - edelhans 5y ago
    Exactly. I really don't mind paying for apps in general, but with macOS even those tiny trivial utils are mostly not open source / free. I'm talking stuff like changing mouse acceleration, add a "new xxx file" right click menu to finder or closing apps in mission control. Compared to Linux (and even Windows) I really miss some sort of open source movement.
serjester 5y ago
If it’s too expensive, don’t buy it? Personally I think it’s awesome there’s tons of small creators making a living improving macOS. What you get in return is incredibly polished products.
- ronyfadel 5y ago
  I fully agree (as someone who buys other small Mac apps as well). It’s a small product with a small price and you’d be supporting indie development. In a world where most paid software revenue is being made by big corporations, it makes even more sense to support indies.
heresaPizza 5y ago
Here you can find many FOSS utilities: https://github.com/serhii-londar/open-source-mac-os-apps https://github.com/serhii-londar/open-source-mac-os-apps Also, check r/apphookup on reddit for discounts (every day there’s a couple iOS apps that are made free and they’re often compatible with the Mac too thanks to Catalyst). If you have an iPhone you can use the Pager app and set monitors for the subreddit to receive notifications. Eventually you can pay for a SetApp subscription (10 whatever your value is + 3 for any additional device).

awayfromhome1 5y ago

If there is a feature which can help me cross all the windows but the current one (like we have for chrome tabs), it would be awesome.

ronyfadel 5y ago
Yes, using the keyboard “Close all other windows”

alin23 5y ago

Nice to see this here! I’ve used since the first day I subscribed to Setapp. Good job on creating what I feel is a functionality that should have been native in macOS!

ncr100 5y ago
Given past behavior, Apple is likely to clone it. And hopefully the OP makes $$$$ enough to cover that frustrating future moment.
- ronyfadel 5y ago
  I’d say I make $$ from it, maybe not $$$$ :-) Sherlocking is all too real though
  - mthoms 5y ago
    I'm a user (via Setapp) and I love it. Can I suggest a feature? I'd love if mission control would open the desktops view in mission control sometimes. I think this used to be a toggle (or hidden pref?) in MacOS. I'm not sure if this is possible but it would help greatly.
    - ronyfadel 5y ago
      I’ll investigate
- olyjohn 5y ago
  Based on my experience, it'll be broken with the next OS update and will require 50 workarounds to get it working again. This has happened with so many utilities that have made my Mac better to use, I am reluctant to try them out anymore.
  - ronyfadel 5y ago
    So far so good, MCP has been going strong for 3 releases

iRobbery 5y ago

I can imagine people using mission control this is nice, but personally i never used mission control and i wonder if i'm missing a particular reason?

mediumsmart 5y ago
I can't think of one either. I usually have one window/frame per app so command tab Q covers that. But I just saw the close feature here, maybe there is more to it. the reminders app he closes in the gif on the site looses its point in the dock but maps and numbers stay active - so is that just closing the window and not the app?
- ronyfadel 5y ago
  You can do both, close a window or quit the app
  - randomluck040 5y ago
    I just downloaded the free version and I'm going to purchase a license. It's baffling how it is not possible to have the functionality to navigate with arrow keys in mission control really... How is the license managed? Can I take it with me when I get a new device and want to use it there?
- randomluck040 5y ago
  If I’d only use one window/instance of each app, I wouldn’t mind. Since cmd+tab isn’t showing each instance without clicking up-arrow again when on the item, I prefer Mission Control.

randomluck040 5y ago

Is there an option to navigate the windows with the arrow keys with this?

ronyfadel 5y ago
Yes!
- randomluck040 5y ago
  Like I can go to Mission Control and with the arrows I can move around and click enter? This is godsend, this was so disturbing and workflow disrupting for me when I’ve switched to macOS. I‘ll be back at my laptop at 28th and will try it out. Thanks!

cityzen 5y ago

Just a quick shout out to SetApp. I was very hesitant to use it but it is a pretty amazing service/platform. Very high quality apps for $100/yr is a steal.

ronyfadel 5y ago
Yes, I’m a user as well and as you said it’s a steal!