[OS] Tactile: feel a trackpad tick whenever your cursor lands on something clickable, in any Mac app

https://redd.it/1wf8xhi
@macappsbackup

Ordinary Space: Window tiling for macOS, without the auto-tiling (fixed workareas, window stacks, keyboard-first)

Watch Ordinary Space in action

Problem

I have used tiling window managers since 2020: i3 on Ubuntu, then Yabai on Mac for years, then niri on Arch for a few months. What I learned is that I don’t actually want auto-tiling. I don’t like windows reshuffling every time something opens. What I want is fixed regions on my desktop that I open apps into.

That’s Ordinary Space. You draw workareas on your desktop once, in an edit mode, no config file. Each workarea holds a stack of windows. When you launch the app, everything already open gets tiled into the default workarea. Anything you open after that lands in the workarea you are working in, sized to fit, and nothing else moves.

Then it’s all keyboard, if you want it:

Option + N/P: cycles the stack inside a workarea
Option + H/J/K/L: moves focus between workareas
Option + Shift + H/J/K/L: moves the window you are on to another workarea and follows it.

Once you have drawn a layout, you can save it as a preset, then apply it to any other desktop instead of drawing it again.

There’s a command palette where you can switch layout, jump to any window in any stack, change a setting and more.

Themes and every shortcut are customisable.

It works on the native macOS desktop and across multiple monitors. No SIP changes, no scripting.

Comparison

The main difference is who decides where windows go. Auto-tilers decide for you and rearrange everything else to make room. Ordinary Space flips that: you draw the workareas first, and windows tile into whichever one you are in. The layout never changes on its own. If you like being in control of the shape of your desktop and having windows settle into it, that’s the whole idea.

yabai
Free and open source
Auto-tiling: new windows split the current space and everything reshuffles.
I was using yabai before I build Ordinary Space
AeroSpace
Free and open source
Also auto-tiling with a tree layout
It run its own emulated workspaces instead of native macOS Desktops
Rectangle, Magnet, Raycast’s window commands
These snap a single window to a position when you ask.
They don’t keep a layout, so the next window you open goes wherever macOS puts it

Pricing

7-day free trial, no account, no credit card
$10 one time for one year of updates. You keep every version released in that year forever.
$20 one-time for lifetime updates.
One license activates one Mac at a time. You can deactivate and move it whenever you like.

Link: https://wzordinaryventures.com/products/ordinary-space

Every past build stays downloadable with its checksum, so a one-year license never loses access to the versions it covers.

About me

I am Wei Zhe Heng, a software engineer based in Malaysia.

LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/wei-zhe-heng](https://www.linkedin.com/in/wei-zhe-heng?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios)
Open source GitHub projects:
[ror.nvim](https://github.com/weizheheng/ror.nvim) (161 stars): A Neovim plugin for Ruby on Rails development
nvim-workbench (61 stars): A workbench plugin for Neovim
Email: [wz@wzordinaryventures.com](mailto:support@wzordinaryventures.com)

Transparency

Ordinary Space is distributed directly from my website, not the Mac App Store.
The app is signed with my Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so Gatekeeper checks it on first launch like any other notarised download.
It needs one permission, Accessibility, which is how it reads window positions and moves and resizes windows.
Runs on macOS 15 Sequoia and later. It's built and tested against macOS Tahoe, so that's where it's best.
No analytics and no telemetry. Nothing is sent automatically, including crash data. If the app didn't shut down cleanly it will offer

to export a diagnostics file, but that's something you do by hand and can read before sending.
Licensing talks to my server to activate and to check the license, and stores the key in your macOS Keychain. Once a paid license is verified it works offline.
 Updates come from a signed manifest on my own domain, and the app verifies the signature before it installs anything.
Privacy policy: [https://wzordinaryventures.com/privacy](https://wzordinaryventures.com/privacy)
Terms: https://wzordinaryventures.com/terms

Happy to answer anything, and if you hit a bug I’d genuinely like to hear it.

https://redd.it/1wf8q9e
@macappsbackup

CoolDock - Your smart second dock of widgets

https://redd.it/1wfbhxk
@macappsbackup

[OS] NetFluss 2.6 - See your network traffic, bandwidth, WiFi & VPN connections and easily switch your DNS directly in your menubar
https://redd.it/1wfch2w
@macappsbackup

[OS] OpenDisk: a free, fast, open source DaisyDisk alternative for macOS

https://redd.it/1wfdpvn
@macappsbackup

Raycast is deleting posts with negative feedback or concerns about their new pricing model

I'll start this post with the reasons why people are not happy with Raycast at the moment. Post examples will be at the bottom.

In case you don't know, Raycast has received quite a lot of backlash with their recent changes.

1. Firstly, people are not happy with their transition away from being a native macOS app and transition towards another AI wrapper. v2 uses more memory, is slower and in general feels more sluggish, partly due to not being native. Not great for an app that needs to be always available.
2. Secondly, with the release of v2, they put BYOK behind a Pro subscription. This means if you want to use your own AI API keys with Raycast, you need to pay them a subscription. This was a free features in v1, and the team was advocating for it being free back then.
3. Thirdly, they changed their subscription model related to AI. They previously had fixed rate limits, meaning you could send 300 messages per hour to some models. Now, they have introduced "AI Credits". Long story short with this, people are using up their entire monthly limit in just a single day, myself included. They also screwed over existing annual subscribers that had subscribed to Raycast with the old limits. The reddit post about this has 35 upvotes and 339 comments. The slack announcement post about this also has the most replies ever on their community. People are not happy.
4. Then they sent out an email titled "Making things right for existing annual subscribers", which was a complete joke. They basically did nothing, just gave a little more AI Credits until people's annual subscriptions are up. The reddit post has 0 upvotes and 51 comments, with no one being happy about this.

Someone made a post sharing their feelings about the changes. The post had 142 upvotes in just 1 day, making it among the top 25 posts of all time in the subreddit. There were other posts, but unfortunately I don't have links to them. Someone also shared an alternative to Raycast with some thoughts related to the changes, and it was also deleted. That post was deleted within 60 minutes (on a sunday), with it already having 34 upvotes. The subreddit has some other posts up, with users saying the new pricing model is a robbery because they used their monthly credits in 2 days, comparing the new plans to Apple's product naming, renaming the product to "Paycast", and if people can use their own keyboard with Raycast without paying for a subscription (joke related to Raycast releasing a keyboard).

Along with those posts, some of the Raycast teams' now deleted tweets about the backlash to the pricing changes are very rude and weird. I won't be naming names here though.

https://redd.it/1wfi93v
@macappsbackup

Homebrew 7.0 is out and it includes a GUI!

https://preview.redd.it/2gazmlucocph1.png?width=2672&format=png&auto=webp&s=e1919a8621c8ad7286d90fd61bb83b6475b0db56

head on over to check it out...

https://brew.sh/2026/09/13/homebrew-7.0.0/

https://redd.it/1wfjbir
@macappsbackup

Steve Jobs development advice and how to pull ahead in the vibe clone age.

https://reddit.com/link/1wfi95q/video/whxjx5o1icph1/player

I came across this WWDC 1997 Steve Jobs clip today, and it resonated strongly as I look at the shift in quality and user experience with apps in 2026 (irrespective of vibe coding). Here's the heart of it:

>"One of the things I've always found is that you've got to start with the customer experience and work back to the technology. You can't start with the technology and try to figure out where you're going to try sell it." - Steve Jobs

Having moderated well over 10,000 posts/comments here in the last year, if I'd give one piece of advice, it is this: Focus on making one thing incredible from a user experience standpoint, and keep refining it. Once it is excellent, adding more will be well-received, provided you maintain the same principle. And don't just do this blind. Make sure you tested at LEAST the top 3 competitors you could find.

The inverse can also be true: If you keep delaying release and run out of steam, you can miss opportunities entirely. Find a healthy balance that doesn't strangle development. Many devs keep up such a rigorous development pace, shipping new features, that they don't stop to ask if they have done it well, or even if they should.

A mistake I see devs making here over and over again here is that they come up with what they think is an incredible idea. 10-apps-in-1, perhaps, or a new feature every week, but do it with such little design sense or taste, that it creates friction or doesn't take off. This causes discouragement, and many a project is abandoned in six months.

This is not the apple way. You can do better, and I challenge you to keep these things in mind. I get that many do not have design experience. Even so, anyone can look at exemplary apps and try to incorporate similar design principles. Apple design standards exist for a reason.

Example: I've seen maybe three apps now where when the accessibility permissions step included a drag and drop experience to add the app if it was not listed. In another app this year, I noticed a settings menu had a little animation where it fades in 10px from the right over maybe 150ms when switching sections. These little background details are what we need more of. The mindset behind them result in a degree of excellence that stands out and ripples to everything else.

Where do you agree or disagree?

Challenge: Comment with 2 apps (at most, and not your own) that you think fit this user experience philosophy amidst the many options available. Apps you feel are excellent exemplars for design and user experience imitation.

Bonus points if you note the aspect or function that most impressed you.

P.s. Unpopular opinion: No promotional post should need to be longer than this, or half of it.

https://redd.it/1wfi95q
@macappsbackup

iOS/Macos 27 can basically let Claude become a Siri extension ❤️


iOS 27 and macOS Golden Gate have private hooks for Siri Extensions.. You can use Chatgpt and Claude.. this is honestly so cool.

https://preview.redd.it/n9nqxmm2ybph1.jpg?width=1312&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ea0367830522a84971a7a40657e1cb5dec111403

https://preview.redd.it/6wmy4nz2ybph1.jpg?width=1204&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ac45f58b31560e95ef1f032aa31cb2455a40f2eb



https://redd.it/1wffexe
@macappsbackup

Where did you land on privacy vs being able to reach your users?

I built my app without accounts, without collecting emails, without analytics, simply because that’s what I want from the software I install.

The only built-in way I have to communicate with users is through Sparkle update notes. No signup, no email on download, no tracking.

I liked how clean that was until I started to see the flip side.

If someone emails me about a bug, obviously I can reply to that person when it’s fixed. But if I realize the same bug affects a bunch of other users, I have no way to tell them. Same thing when I ship something useful. Most users only hear about it if they read the update notes. Price changes, features that get dropped, migrations, or anything else they might actually need to know all have the same problem.

Now I’m wondering if I went a little too far with that one.

For those of you building apps, what do you prefer? Taking an email at some point in the process, even if it’s optional? Or keeping that relationship completely anonymous and being OK with the fact that it’s harder to reach users later?

https://redd.it/1wfhd4a
@macappsbackup

Best File manager

Is there any best file manager other than Finder on MacOS? It's really very counter intuitive. Coming from Windows file explorer, i see many limitations here. Most annoying thing is, I can't just navigate to folders within folders easily/ copy any file/folder path.

Ex: I have a path c://program files/a/b/c/d .. on Windows explorer, i can just click on b to get to see or copy whichever path i want from directly the top file path. But Finder cannot fo it.

https://redd.it/1wfwuhq
@macappsbackup

Raycast 2 went cross-platform. If you left it on Mac, what did you switch to?

Raycast 2 got me thinking about this again.

I understand the business argument for sharing more code between Mac and Windows. One team, faster development, fewer things to maintain.

But with Claude/Copilot/etc. making implementation work much faster now, I wonder if maintaining native apps for each platform is actually becoming more viable rather than less.

Anyway, I'm mostly curious about people who actually used Raycast and then left it:

What are you using now?

Alfred? LaunchBar? Tinycast? Spotlight + smaller utilities? Something else?

And more importantly: what's genuinely better than Raycast, and what's the one Raycast feature you still miss?

I'm especially interested in people who've used their replacement for a while rather than just tried it for a day.

https://redd.it/1wfy0mb
@macappsbackup

ProcessSpy - Advanced process monitor for Mac

https://redd.it/1wfxx4r
@macappsbackup