/ Windows Task Manager finally gets a Mac rival.
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One of the most popular Windows utilities has an equivalent under development on another popular platform. Dave W. Plummer, the original author of Windows Task Manager, announced that he will build a native version of the program for macOS. Why? Because he believes the native alternative of this utility on Apple computers is simply inferior to Task Manager (Toms Hardware).
Until now, macOS users have used Activity Monitor to track CPU load, RAM usage, and killing unnecessary applications and processes. The software works fine, but in the opinion of the creator of the Windows utility, it lacks features. As Plummer responded to questions from followers on social networks on why he decided to transfer a Windows program to ‘fruity computers’, his answer was very simple, the Activity Monitor just doesn’t meet user needs.
Of course, Dave W. Plummer is far from a generic software developer who evaluates the differences between Mac and Windows computers. On the contrary, he is the engineer who created Windows Task Manager, which weighed only 80KB at the beginning of its life cycle. In addition, Plummer has been working in the niche of retrocomputing and systems development and recently remade Task Manager with an entertaining dashboard inspired by the Atari Tempest video game.
Indeed, there is a logical explanation. Windows Task Manager has become a much better utility than Activity Monitor and it includes such features as task prioritization, startup application management, and control of background services. Thus, if Plummer’s Mac version includes even part of that functionality, it will perfectly suit many Mac users.
It should be noted that this new utility has not been publicly released yet, and therefore its capabilities and usability have not been tested. However, judging by the available screenshots, the interface of the utility is very similar to the interface of the classic Task Manager adapted to macOS.
Considering his experience at Microsoft, Plummer was aware that some people could raise objections as to why a Windows specialist develops utilities for another platform. In particular, the developer responded in the following posts that Microsoft has explicitly allowed him to reference the source code of Task Manager from the time of Windows XP and demonstrated it publicly. Moreover, he pointed out that this utility is created using Swift technology from scratch, so he doesn’t have access to the sources of the Task Manager of newer versions.
Thus, this is not a copy-paste utility or a case of leaking the source code. It is a clean-room reimplementation of a program with the same goals and the same philosophy.
Regarding distribution, Plummer announced that the current stage is the beta version and he is going to distribute this utility in the Mac App Store for free at least during the beta stage saying that ‘the first taste is always free’. In addition, he said that there is a probability that he will stop developing this utility further and open its sources, so other specialists of the community could continue the work.
Currently, the utility is under active development. Dave W. Plummer posted information about the problems he is solving, such as the creation of a live-drive activity meter. Currently, he is struggling to render the instantaneous activity of the drive at 60 fps without flickering and distracting graphics, this fact indicates serious engineering work in the creation of this utility.
From TheTweaks point of view, Activity Monitor really needed replacement and it would be very nice if the original author of Task Manager would create something similar for macOS. The permission to use the source code of Task Manager in the era of Windows XP removes all possible doubts regarding legality. And the fact that the utility is developed in Swift from scratch makes us sure that nothing suspicious is happening.
However, there are a lot of doubts about the utility. Indeed, the program is still in the beta stage, has not been publicly released and Plummer has not guaranteed its final release. The drive activity meter is still under development and there is no exact date of the release.
Nevertheless, if the utility is released as planned and appears in the Mac App Store, it will become a useful free addition to any Mac user’s toolkit. Of course, we will closely monitor this utility and test it as soon as it becomes available for public use.
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