SwitchCenter: an OSX Mission Control alternative (invite-only)

7 points by offbeatport 4 years ago | 7 comments

Hello HN.

I’m working on a tool that aims to replace OSX's Mission Control: https://www.switchcenter.app.

It will display the windows in a more orderly fashion and will also give you some control over them (i.e. you can close the windows or go full-screen). When released, it will be a paid-for tool with a trial version available to try it out.

I would very much appreciate if anyone would be willing and curious enough to try the alpha-preview version and provide some feedback.

If you want to participate please go to https://www.switchcenter.app to subscribe, or send me an email.

Thank you in advance.

twright 4 years ago |

A video demo would be helpful, does it improve window management between spaces at all? I really liked spaces/mission control in OSX 10.6 before they changed it to what it is now. You could have a grid of desktops and move windows between them without having to go to the desktop first.

offbeatport 4 years ago | |

Good idea. I'll make a video and upload it to the page.

Unfortunately, the first version will not support spaces. I tried to add that functionality as part of the MVP but as it turns out, working with OSX's private functions for spaces is not straightforward. However, I do appreciate that you (and probably other people too) use spaces, so I'll add it in at some point in the near future.

user3939382 4 years ago |

My biggest problem in this area is the extremely annoying delay/animation when switching desktops/spaces in macOS or switching between full screen apps. The only way I’ve been able to solve this is buying TotalSpaces but it also has problems.

offbeatport 4 years ago | |

I agree. For me, I tried to use reduce motion and turn off most of the animations in OSX (this is how I did it https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/142734). It didn't completely remove the animations but it went from "slide in/out" animation to "fade in/out". It felt like a better experience.

frau_wacholder 4 years ago |

signed up for news. very interested in this, i rely very heavily on window management tools

gus_massa 4 years ago |

Fake questions are not well received here. Can you change the title to something like "Switchcenter: a OSX Mission Control alternative" or "Switchcenter: Revised osx windows management" ?

offbeatport 4 years ago | |

Thank you for the feedback. Very good advice. I just didn't want to mislead people into thinking that this is ready for general use.