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macOS Bartender Auto-Update Signed by Unknown New Owner
- blinded 2y agoI own this app and haven't update yet, smh. Silly its not just a feature of the OS.
- nikolay 2y agoIt should be, yes.
- SamuelAdams 2y agoThere are so many small apps that really ought to be part of the OS by now. A few that come to mind: Rectangle, or some sort of default way to control application windows with your keyboard. Mos / UnnaturalScrollWheels: if you use a docking station, you may want natural scrolling when using your laptop as a laptop, and normal scrolling when using a mouse. Windows and Linux both have this solved for 15 years now, I am amazed Apple continues to ignore this. Alfred: Apple’s Spotlight app has come a long way but I want to lock, restart and shut down my computer with my keyboard. There are some shortcuts but honestly I can never remember the key combinations. It would be much easier to command + space, type “shut down” and the computer shuts down. https://rectangleapp.com/ https://rectangleapp.com/ https://mos.caldis.me/ https://mos.caldis.me/ https://github.com/ther0n/UnnaturalScrollWheels https://github.com/ther0n/UnnaturalScrollWheels https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/system/ https://www.alfredapp.com/help/features/system/
- somehnguy 2y agoRectangle user for years, great app. Today I got frustrated enough to find AltTab (https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/), huge improvement to my workflow already. Sometimes when cmd+tab'ing between apps it'll bring the selected window to the foreground, and sometimes it won't. They'll regain focus for typing, but are hidden behind another window for whatever reason. Fully open windows too, not minimized or anything. Was driving me mad having to click between IntelliJ and Chrome hundreds of times while doing web UI work instead of quick switching with the keyboard.
- Tagbert 2y agoDo you use cmd + ` (tilde key) to cycle through windows within an app? Its the key just above Tab and that's probably why it was chosen.
- somehnguy 2y agoYes, that combination to cycle between windows of an app never gives me any trouble. It's when cycling between different apps (cmd + tab) that I run into issues.
- fragmede 2y agocontexts.app for windows style alt-tab behavior
- yodon 2y ago+1 for Alt-Tab-MacOS, which lets you have Windows-style alt-tab behavior on Macs. Finding it was quite literally what enabled me to finally move from Windows to Mac.
- blinded 2y agodamn! thanks for the list ill check them out.
- jwells89 2y agoAlfred is truly excellent. Not only is it capable of a wide array of things but is built extremely well, being exceptionally lightweight, stable, extensible, and tiny. It’s increasingly rare for software to be even two of those these days, let alone all of them.
- ewoodrich 2y agoAlfred is fantastic since it let me remove all the junk I don't care about in Spotlight. Which makes search ridiculously fast for the only things I ever want to use search for: opening applications and basic OS functions you mentioned like locking, entirely using the keyboard. There's a fantastic Alfred feature of an additional locking shortcut that blacks out the display immediately instead of meandering on the lock screen afterwards. I have never had any desire on any OS to search the web, or the app store, or even my files for that matter (without doing so deliberately). Having everything mangled together is so distracting to me and only slows me down. Started liking my M1 Macbook Pro so much more after I discovered Alfred while searching for any tricks that would let me pare down Spotlight to essentially nothing. I debloated my Windows 11 search to do close to the same thing (although not quite as good as Alfred) and remapped search hotkeys to be consistent across both platforms which is just so pleasant as someone who routinely needs to switch between MacOS and Windows.
- eviks 2y agoon Windows you can also use a standalone launcher like Keyprinha to do the same - only choose the stuff you want to be indexed. And then use Everything to find any file anywhere instantly (can be setup to show results in the same launcher)
- eric-hu 2y ago> I want to lock, restart and shut down my computer with my keyboard. There are some shortcuts but honestly I can never remember the key combinations. If you don’t already know this combo, cmd-? (AKA cmd-shift-/) will drop down the “help” menu in most applications that run in macOS. From there, I use the arrow keys to move to other menus. It’s just one nearly universal hotkey and it works for almost all menu items.
- LgWoodenBadger 2y agoFYI, you can use the Keyboard preferences page in System Settings to assign things like “lock screen” (I forget exactly what it’s called) to a key (F15 I think I used). I don’t know if Restart or Shutdown are allowable choices.
- luckman212 2y agolock: ctrl + cmd + Q logout: cmd + shift + Q
- gaws 2y ago> Alfred Raycast[1] is the new (and preferred) kid on the block. [1] https://www.raycast.com/ https://www.raycast.com/
- oefrha 2y agomacOS should have its own PowerToys. Windows is smelly but PowerToys is a breath of fresh air.
- alsetmusic 2y agoMy first license was from 2015. This is one of the most important utilities I install on all my Macs. I'm sad to see this apparently (and appearance is all that really counts at a moment like this) shifty behavior from the new owners. Hope the original dev got a nice payday. I plan to keep running the app without updating until it breaks or I find something I like better. I hate when beloved software (effectively) goes away.
- danpalmer 2y agoI switched to HiddenBar a few years ago when a Bartender licence ran out. It's open source, it's free, and it hasn't been taken over by a new owner who won't identify themselves. https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden
- luuurker 2y agoLast time I tested it, icons would be hidden by the notch. Have they fixed that yet? Edit: Nope, no change and the last update was 2 years ago. Ice ( https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice ) doesn't currently handle this either, but it's "on the roadmap" ( https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice/issues/1#issuecomment-1928537386 https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice/issues/1#issuecomment-192... ) and it's being updated.
- LeoPanthera 2y agoNo, it still isn't aware of the notch, and there has been no update in over 2 years. The app seems to be abandoned.
- cpeterso 2y agoThat menu bar icons can be hidden behind the notch seems like an Apple bug that should be handled in macOS.
- kemayo 2y agoLast update was three years ago, so probably not.
- j16sdiz 2y ago> .... by a new owner who won't identify themselves Idk, but most of software I use were written by unidentified individuals.
- voxic11 2y agoYou don't have to live like that.
- sangeeth96 2y agoI just switched to Ice after reading this and it seems just as good for my needs: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice
- oefrha 2y agoI just tried, wasted five minutes and couldn't for the life of me figure out how to move things out of the (always?) hidden group they're in by default. Eventually found the instruction for it on the issue tracker: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice/issues/42 https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice/issues/42 While I do remember now that cmd+drag is how you reorder menu bar icons, so that is sort of intuitive for people familiar with the behavior, I haven't done that for years and definitely need a reminder. Seems very strange that the very first nontrivial action isn't documented anywhere (maybe it is but I still don't see it)... While searching for how to move anything out of hiding, I also landed on https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice/issues/29#issuecomment-1999994188 https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice/issues/29#issuecomment-19.... Apparently Ice can only hide one segment of the menu bar at once, so if the icons are rearranged for some reason, they can show up in a wrong section. Author promises a future update will fix this, but at the moment Bartender is still the best option unfortunately.
- teeray 2y agoWhy is this not functionality that is built into the OS at this point? Is there anyone that loves 10,000 taskbar apps visible at all times?
- sircastor 2y agoI think this is a relatively niche product. Most people aren’t using so many apps and extensions that their menu bar is getting crowded with stuff.
- garciasn 2y agoI haven’t seen a single Mac user on screen share that doesn’t have too many icons on their bar for me. I want to see almost none. For all of Apple’s insistence on design and clean, the menu bar and those hideous icons always there was the worst one ever. I’ve been a Bartender user for over 10 years (I believe 12) and I’m now really fucking sad.
- LeoPanthera 2y ago> I haven’t seen a single Mac user on screen share that doesn’t have too many icons on their bar for me. This says more about app devs than it does about users.
- pxc 2y agoApple devs as well as application developers— menu bar icons are clearly a neglected corner of the ecosystem in that Apple would prefer that app devs not persist icons in the menu bar at all. But the feature is nonetheless wildly popular as the nearest systray-alike functionality on macOS.
- hombre_fatal 2y agoNot really. Even in the case where every single app has a good reason to have a menu bar icon, but you're still left with the fact that macOS doesn't let you manage them.
- dylan604 2y agoLet this be an example to any dev in this situation on how NOT to handle things. Everything about this transfer feels shady. The lack of response to direct questions after posting in a public forum is just all sorts of tone deaf. By making the public post, you're clearly aware there's concern. Then you post a murky and ambiguous response. You then do not follow up with concerns about the lack of information in the post. Just tell all of your users you don't care about them and you're about to unleash all sorts of nasty malware with a future update. At least they'll respect you for being honest.
- LeoPanthera 2y agoUgh, this sucks. This app was nearly essential on MacBooks with a notch, since you could hide lesser used icons away to make everything fit.
- Tagbert 2y agoTrue, but it has been essential for a long time before the notch for those of us with a non-trivial amount of software. The menu bar is a popular spot and so many apps want to put an icon there.
- dwighttk 2y agoman I add a few icons using istatmenus and don't even come close to the notch... what kind of icons do you have? Mine are (R to L): system date and time - system control center - iStat Network up/down and histogram - iStat Battery - Dropbox that fills about 40% of the way to the notch... 50% when I'm unplugged and the battery is showing time remaining
- _0xdd 2y agoThere’s a setting to kinda get around having to use apps like this if you’re dealing w the notch. I don’t recall the specific command, but there is a way to shrink the icon spacing to allow more visible icons. Edit: see https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/406316/can-the-spacing-of-menu-bar-apps-be-modified-in-macos-big-sur-and-later/465674#465674 https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/406316/can-the-spa...
- oidar 2y agoThis is what I did too. I don't think I need bartender now. A lot of the cruft can be managed by the control center and there are smart options in the control center and menu bar. These settings looked good to me: defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 5 defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int 8
- LeoPanthera 2y agoThe Reddit thread recommends "Ice" as an alternative: https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice
- luuurker 2y agoAll these open source alternatives lack something important for macs with notches: a way to see the expanded icons below the menu bar. Without this, icons are hidden by the notch. You'd expect macOS to properly support the notch after 3 generations of laptops with them, but nope.
- FireBeyond 2y agoI mean, promising, but a lot is still "in active development" and on the roadmap, including notch support, icon arranging...
- anonsec123 2y agoIf I wanted to poison update a bunch of developers who likely work at major US tech companies, this is exactly the type of software I would target for "purchase".
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bravetraveler 2y agoExactly, I've been called draconian in the past... but that's why I'm hesitant to add nearly anything. With LLMs my usual barometers may not be that effective; documentation/perceived mindshare. Usually if my peers know about it... I'll call it decent. That stopped being fine for browser extensions like Adblockers and it's expanding. Land grabs in every domain!
- processunknown 2y agoExactly. Raivo OTP iOS app was sold last year and recently pushed an update that deleted all users codes. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40523411 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40523411. Very suspicious
- stblack 2y agoIn Bartender 4, Right-click the "..." in the menu bar, then * Bartender Preferences... * Advanced * Uncheck "Check for Updates Automatically"
- threePointFive 2y agoI don't develop for Mac, so I'm probably missing something important here, but what is the point of code signing if the owner of the signing key isn't publicly verifiable? Is there not a chain-of-trust back to Apple that can be used to determine who requested the signing key?
- SheinhardtWigCo 2y agoThere is, kind of. Each developer is identified by a “team ID”, which appears in the Common Name of these certificates. Apple does some validation of the developer’s legal entity, similar to EV SSL.
- JoeMattiello 2y agoInteresting. Today I kept getting notifications that “Spotlight” was updated and it was asking me permissions to allow access to its previous version data. I thought that was odd for system service and I kept rejecting it but it kept coming up. I finally clicked except and start looking through my task manager to see if anything was off but everything looked OK so I wasn’t really sure it was going on. Bartender is installed through SetApp. I wonder if it’s related. I’m going to uninstall reboot and run system scan.
- rocketvole 2y agoMan, first I hear about Raivo, now this. Been a bad week for me to say the least...
- slimebot80 2y agoSo the issue here is the screen recording? And that this app is popular with people in tech? Would a Little Snitch block cover the risk for some? I sometimes wonder about all the homebrew stuff devs use....
- dcchambers 2y agoFWIW it appears the latest version on SetApp (5.0.48) is unaffected by this, so feel free to continue using it (and disable auto-updates) if you want, but this whole things feels pretty icky so I went ahead and uninstalled. Looking into alternatives. Really wish Apple would address this problem natively.
- DavideNL 2y agoYou could just use "Little Snitch", block internet for Bartender, and keep using the latest version for a while. Meanwhile, keep an eye out on how things develop...
- mp05 2y agoYep, this is what I did once I saw this. I hate to admit it, but I'd lose my mind if I didn't have Bartender.
- adamors 2y agoNote that you can download previous versions from https://www.macbartender.com/Bartender5/release_notes/ https://www.macbartender.com/Bartender5/release_notes/ still. 5.0.49 is still signed by Surtees Studios Limited
- Arubis 2y agoSuper helpful workaround for those of us that want to deal with this not right this instant.
- adamors 2y agoI'd also recommend installing Lulu https://objective-see.org/tools.html https://objective-see.org/tools.html and blocking every network activity regardless of the version you're on.
- rcarr 2y agoI believe you might be able to replicate the functionality using BetterTouchTool but it might be a bit of hassle to do, not 100% sure though.
- 037 2y agoYou are right, but it’s not very difficult: The trigger can be “Double-click Main Menubar” and the action “Show / Hide Menu Bar Icons left of the BTT Icon.” You can even add actions to hide them again after a certain number of seconds or minutes. (It’s only a partial replication because Bartender can show you the additional icons in a secondary bar, if needed).
- garyrob 2y agoGiven the proximity of this development to WWDC, it seems like there's a chance Apple has acquired Bartender and has incorporated its functionality into the next MacOS release.
- _rs 2y agoGiven the shady replies on Reddit, I don't think so, that isn't how Apple operates
- Aaron2222 2y agoAlso, Apple doesn't tend to write SEO clickbait: https://www.macbartender.com/Bartender5/blog/ https://www.macbartender.com/Bartender5/blog/
- Hamuko 2y agoDoesn't Apple usually just buy companies publically and then later announce that the product has been discontinued? That's what happened to Dark Sky. I'd hope for Apple to actually incorporate this into the fucking OS itself so that we didn't run through these hoops for pretty basic functionality that has been in Windows for what, two decades?
- nicky0 2y agoIf Apple wanted to implement a simlar feature, they would just do it. They wouldn't buy a 3rd party app when they could just do it themselves. The value proposition of these kind of third party UI apps is that the developer cleverly figured out how to manipulate Apple's APIs to do something Apple didn't really intend. Apple themselves can just write their own private API to do it, they don't need the clever hacks.
- garyrob 2y agoAn update to my own comment, above. After absorbing other comments, I no longer think it's a reasonable possibility that Apple has purchased Bartender. I think we have to assume it's likely to be a malicious actor. There could even be a state-level malicious actor ultimately behind it.
- nymiro 2y agoThis rendered Hidden Bar and Bartender obsolete for me, just reduce icons padding. You can still complement with Hidden Bar. I wish I had written down the original author to give credit: ``` defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int 6 defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 6 ##After running these commands, you need to log out and log back in ```
- yodon 2y agoWhat do the commands do experientially?
- Brajeshwar 2y agoIn my habit of sticking to a minimalist and essentialist lifestyle, I've been trying to stay within the Native Apps and reduce third-party apps wherever I can either get rid of or replace them, even if I have to add additional effort. I've been using Bartender for a very long time. I got rid of it about a year ago. These days, I think and ponder over multiple times before introducing a Menubar App. - Of course, do I feel the pain if I don't have this one? - Can this be hidden altogether? - Is the icon monochrome? Colored icons are outright rejected. Between the Control Center and the limitations I set for myself, I've survived so far. Let's see where this goes.
- fifafu 2y agoIn case you are already using my BetterTouchTool app I have created a little tutorial & example preset here on how to use it for status item management: https://community.folivora.ai/t/bartender-controversy-tutorial-on-how-to-manage-menubar-status-items-via-btt/37429 https://community.folivora.ai/t/bartender-controversy-tutori... You can add feature requests there, it should be pretty simple to extend BTT to support the remaining required features.
- cloogshicer 2y agoMan, I love BTT. I've been using it for many years, it's fantastic! Something that I'd love to have is an easy way to show menu items that aren't visible because there's not enough space in the menu bar. I often have to switch to a different app with fewer text items in the menu bar like Finder, which only has File, Edit, etc., just so I can reach menu bar items that would be otherwise hidden.
- mmaniac 2y agoMac OS has a serious problem with requiring loads of third party extensions to get a usable desktop experience. Most of the time it's merely annoying, but this situation also demonstrates that you're placing a lot of trust in the authors of these programs.
- dewey 2y agoNobody “requires” these tools to have a “usable” experience. Millions of people are using it just fine without all these tweaks.
- rhinoceraptor 2y agoA menu bar manager only becomes necessary when you have a bunch of extra things installed on your system that each have a menu bar item.
- geekraver 2y agoOr when you have a #$@^$! notch
- eddyg 2y agoApple is giving you extra pixels, not taking any away. If you want the same appearance (and resolution) as a non-notch MacBook Pro, open System Settings, go to the Displays section, click Advanced... and toggle on “Show resolutions as list”, save that change, and then enable “Show all resolutions”. Now select the resolution option just below your current selection. (The y-dimension will be slightly less, which equals the space added by the pixels around the notch.)
- mmaniac 2y agoI was never bothered by the notch, but this is useful advice that seems to be little known. Thanks!
- 2y ago
- avensec 2y ago"Unknown" is now known: Purchased by applause.dev - Via https://x.com/digitalychee/status/1798207774993891626 https://x.com/digitalychee/status/1798207774993891626
- inputError 2y ago[dead]
- apple4ever 2y agoThey finally did what they should've done 3 months ago, and Ben made a full statement: https://www.macbartender.com/b5blog/A-New-Chapter-for-Bartender/ https://www.macbartender.com/b5blog/A-New-Chapter-for-Barten... https://surteesstudios.com/a-new-chapter/ https://surteesstudios.com/a-new-chapter/ Had this come out then, I'd be worried. But given how it went now, I'm super worried.
- joshuaturner 2y agoI wonder how widespread the damage to the app's reputation is after this. I've had multiple conversations with people about this today and everyone is moving to alternatives. As you said, I don't think knowing that Applause (applause.dev) is the acquiring company helps much considering they have no track record of anything as far as I can see, but having a full day of radio silence must have done some considerable damage.
- kemayo 2y agoYeah, we weren't thinking that Bartender had been stolen somehow, which is what this post is mostly addressing. Rather it's a question of whether we can trust the people who've legitimately bought it, particularly given a history of app acquisitions taking things down a shady road. Surtees had a bunch of accumulated trust from having been maintaining Bartender for over a decade and not having done anything abusive with it in that time. A new developer is starting from scratch there, and the first impression being that they're trying to avoid people knowing about them doesn't make us jump to trusting them. (That's why people are being more inclined to trust random apps from unknowns like Hidden Bar or Ice...)