Minimal Mac

Menubar vs. Widgets

I don’t get why people are SO obsessed with having their menubars empty. I understand not wanting it to be overflowing with a million unnecessary things; I get that when you have an app open, sometimes it is just clutter to have a menubar icon too. That’s why I opt out from having icons for adium, tweetie, bowtie, etc. in my menubar.

HOWEVER, I don’t get why people want to remove “invisible” apps from the menubar and replace them with a widget. By invisible I mean things like airport, clock, battery, etc. These small, unobtrusive menubar icons which serve you by being able to be read with a mere glance, and to replace them with clunky dashboard widgets that hog vital computer resources is the complete opposite of minimal, in my opinion. Yes, the dashboard is hidden until you want it. But to me, that’s like sweeping all the dust in a room under a rug.

(Submitted by kmccormi)

I’m posting this in order to offer a different perspective than mine.

I’m posting this because it may be the right answer for many of you.

I’m posting this because there are certainly many valid arguments against removing things like the clock, battery, etc. from the menubar.

I have talked about it more than a bit here because I am distracted by them. I find things that “tick” to be needlessly stress inducing. I imagine there might be others like me out there. That said, this is what works for me. It may not work for you. You may not be distracted by the battery, clock, etc. Every choice comes with a trade off. In this case, the trade off is that the Dashboard may be a bit more resource intensive than the menubar. To me, it is a fair trade because the benefit I get in return is worth it. I mean, heck, I have a 13 inch portable supercomuter on my desk. If I can’t use those spare cycles to reduce my stress what good is it.

I’m going to keep saying this over and over like a some far eastern mountain mantra, the entire purpose of this site is to challenge you to give these suggestions some thought. Not to say there is a particular right or wrong – because there is no such thing here. The only thing that is right is what works for you to get the most productivity and longevity out of your technology.

For me, that means using the simplest tools possible for the job at hand. That means removing anything that causes clutter, undo stress, and distraction.

This may mean something entirely different for you. That is OK too. As long as you have opened yourself to be challenged to think about it.

Posted August 27, 2009 at 11:11am || home