5 ms·
Given how many developers here use LLMs daily, how do you think about defensibility? Tools like this seem relatively easy to reverse-engineer and replicate with
by DrammBA 5mo ago
Given how many developers here use LLMs daily, how do you think about defensibility? Tools like this seem relatively easy to reverse-engineer and replicate with enough time and LLM assistance. Did that influence your decision to charge a subscription or the change to a personal license?
- risyachka 5mo ago>> how do you think about defensibility? defensibility nowadays is app support and development. the more work you pour into it the more defensible it will be. I personally would gladly pay to have app constantly polished and improved. What I would not use is some vibe-coded alternative that was slopped with AI in a day and pushed to github with a tweet "i made a free X alternative" and then abandoned.
- mfru 5mo agohow much is there to improve and polish for a taskbar? at most it will be keeping up with macOS throwing breaking changes at you and maybe one or the other weird bug. but isn't that it?
- user34283 5mo agoI would not. I'm not paying $40 for a taskbar replacement. And not for two years of updates and a two device limit on top. Maybe if it was $10, I could consider it. Prices for macOS apps are insane in my opinion. Everyone wants to charge yearly or every two years now too.
- madhacker 5mo agoI second this! As a lite Mac user, $40 is a bit steep. I'll manage without boringBar no matter how great it is.
- hirvi74 5mo agoHonestly, I have tried to really cut down on my usage of 3rd-party dependencies when possible. In a way, it's kind of freeing. Whatever I still need, I write myself. If I cannot write it, then I try to find something FOSS. If I find nothing, then I consider purchasing something. For example, I am rolling my own window manager (that needs some much needed TLC). I ditched Alfred for Spotlight. Though Alfred is better, I will survive just fine. And the list goes on. I am not trying to take a dig at the OP. I am sure he or she put effort into this application. But I am genuinely curious -- does anybody actually need this software? Cmd+Tab, a decent window manager, and Spotlight would solve the same problems for free.
- mitchell209 5mo agoI fresh install to give myself a different perspective when I feel like I have too many 3rd party solutions to problems that no longer exist. Spotlight is better and I only casually use my macbook nowadays, so I don't need the power of Alfred. I don't need dock extensions because Stage Manager is mediocre but works well enough for the browser, chat / music apps, and whatever document I'm working with at the time.
- dangus 5mo agoThey’re not insane. It costs $99 a year just to be able to write Mac apps at all. Any sort of buy-once app on macOS is unsustainable to the developer. They are paying Apple $99 a year forever. If you want cheap/free apps get off of Apple’s ecosystem and switch to Linux.
- zx8080 5mo ago> It costs $99 a year just to be able to write Mac apps at all. $99 costs publishing apps for profit. Anyone can compile and run for free.
- rahabash 5mo agoSeconded. $10 for 2y and Id buy.. otherwise it feels too steep a price.
- shamsghi 5mo agoAgree
- a-ve 5mo agoThat's the reason why I added a subscription in the first place - you would pay a dirt-cheap price for a "boring" product with an added insurance that someone will be there to support it. People will replicate it, sure, but supporting it regularly is another thing. I guess the majority wanted a perpetual license - so it's a win for the masses.
- 8avo 5mo agoI cannot agree with you more. Personally, I dare not replace the Dock with Windows-style task bar for fear that my OLED display might have burn-in on it. Yet, when I need an alternative, I would rather make an APP for my own.
- butlike 5mo agoIt's not the idea, it's the implementation. It still takes time and effort to reverse-engineer, LLM assistance or not.