Tailscale's new macOS home

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Apple’s macOS menu bar limitations and the MacBook notch are drawing criticism as status icons and app controls silently disappear, breaking key utilities like VPN clients and forcing users onto third-party menu bar managers. In response, Tailscale has introduced a new windowed macOS interface to avoid its VPN controls being hidden, prompting debate over whether background network tools should expose richer UIs or remain invisible. Commenters also weigh Tailscale’s strengths for home and family networking against privacy concerns and the relative simplicity of running plain WireGuard or other VPN setups.

macOS menu bar & notch behavior

  • Many comments focus on a longstanding macOS issue: when menus and status icons exceed available width, items silently disappear, now exacerbated by notched MacBooks.
  • Users report critical icons (VPN, corporate agents, utilities) being hidden with no indication, causing confusion, wasted time, and even support/refund headaches for menu-bar-only apps.
  • Some note this overflow predates the notch; the notch just makes it happen sooner and in “new” ways.
  • Several call it a clear UX failure, especially for people using larger text for accessibility or on smaller/notched screens.

Workarounds & menu bar tools

  • Users rely on tools like Bartender, Ice, Thaw, Hidden Bar, BarBee and various open‑source forks to provide an overflow or hide rarely used icons.
  • Some of these tools have become buggy or broken on newer macOS releases (e.g., Tahoe), partly due to internal API changes.
  • Tricks include changing resolution to hide the notch, reducing menu bar icon spacing via defaults commands, and rearranging icons with Command‑drag.

Views on Apple software & design

  • Several participants believe macOS/iOS UX quality has declined, contrasting improved hardware with worsening software.
  • Others argue Apple never properly designed for third‑party menu bar extras and still treats them as second‑class, pointing to Human Interface Guidelines that discourage relying on them.
  • There is disagreement over how common/serious the issue is; some have never hit it, others encounter it daily on work machines.

Reactions to Tailscale’s new macOS UI

  • Some welcome the move from a pure menu bar applet to a windowed interface, citing frequent use and easier access when the icon is hidden.
  • Others feel Tailscale should remain a quiet background service, worrying about “feature creep” and intrusive UIs.
  • One concern: on macOS, quitting the new app also stops the service; some want the service decoupled from the UI.

Tailscale use cases, alternatives, and concerns

  • Multiple replies say Tailscale (with exit nodes/funnel) is well‑suited for home access, family support, and streaming via a home network.
  • Alternatives mentioned include plain WireGuard, OpenWRT/Tomato setups, and Mullvad exit nodes via Tailscale.
  • A few raise privacy concerns about Tailscale’s default logging/telemetry and advise disabling it if desired.
  • One user reports high packet loss on a GCP setup; others mention occasional reliability/UI issues (e.g., Drop rarely working for them).