[blizzard]

I mean, you double click on an HD or CD and up pops (in my case) both my partitions, whatever removeable media are in my computer, and this Network thingy that I just realized I have never used. What's it there for? It doesn't list any of my users under 'Users', 'Servers' just leads to the contents of my HD, and I have no clue what Applications or Library gets me. I always sort of expected that it would be a way to reach connected servers, such as my friends' SMB shares, but no such luck.

Just a point of curiosity.

[samthecat]

AFAIK the Network folder is for automounted shares when you are on a netinfo network (which is the old NeXT network). i have mac osx server with my Users directory set to automount, and it comes up in /Network/Servers/<servername>/Users on all the client machines.

as to what goes into /Network/Applications or /Network/Library or /Network/Servers ???? maybe there would be some info in the netinfo docs from apple.

cheers

[dfiler]

I took me a while to figure out what you guys were talking about. Upon realization, it just proved your point. The Network icon is currently worse than useless for almost all users. I had subconsciously tried to ignore its existance for all this time.

Occaisionally, a friend or colleague will use my machine and click on this icon thinking it might actually have something to do with the network. Then I have to explain how its just a decoy and that they should completely ignore the network icon. Instead, they must memorize the names and procedures of how to find stuff on the network.
Of course, the Network icon can be configured to do stuff... theoretically. However, 99.99% of users have no idea how to make it do anything whatsoever.
YMMV

[recently posted elsewhere and sent to apple as feedback]

[Mithras]

The original idea is this:

Mac OS X inherits from Unix the idea that you can mount a network share *anywhere* in the file system, not just at /Volumes/ShareName. The /Network folder is a place to mount network shares, to supply applications, settings, and home folders to the entire network at once.

Suppose you work at a school that has a campus-wide network of Macs. This is implemented like this:

Applications:
A network share is mounted at /Network/Applications.

That network share contains applications for the entire network to use, e.g. a single copy of Microsoft Office, the Adobe apps, and Mathematica. (All properly licensed, of course).

Rather than installing all these applications on each individual Mac, and doing it again every time the school-wide applications are updated, a single (beefy) file server holds the applications. Users know that the network-wide applications are found at /Network/Applications.

Any custom applications meant for a particular computer, e.g. a computer with a scanner attached, are installed individually into /Applications (like we're all used to).

Settings:
* A Mac first reads settings from /System/Library, for basic defaults set by Apple.
* It then looks in /Network/Library, which would contain a folder mounted from a network server. In that folder would be the school-wide defaults.
* Next, the Mac checks /Library, to see if there are defaults that have been set for the particular machine. A special library computer might have different settings, for example.
* Lastly, the Mac looks in the current user's home folder, to see if the user has overridden any of the defaults.

Home Folders
Another network share is mounted at /Network/Users, and contains the home folders for all users.

/Users contains local users, whose files live only on a particular Mac.

When you log into that Mac, it first checks /Network/Users, and if you have a network-wide home folder, it loads your home folder from there. That means you can log into any Mac on the campus.

If it can't find you in the network, it then checks the /Users folder, to see if you are a user that exists only on that particular Mac.


It's a very nice vision, but I agree that outside of a corporate or school environment, it doesn't make much sense, and is a source of confusion.

[dfiler]

I agree, the goal of 'Network' is quite noble. However, the current implementation is horrible from a usability standpoint. More thought should be put into the handling of LAN based apps, settings, libraries, and user accessible directories. The root level network icon would be far more useful as a rendevous populated list of shared network resources. Currently, its a decoy, confusing users into thinking that something is broken because nothing appears in their network.

[cwasko]

Originally posted by dfiler:
I agree, the goal of 'Network' is quite noble. However, the current implementation is horrible from a usability standpoint. More thought should be put into the handling of LAN based apps, settings, libraries, and user accessible directories. The root level network icon would be far more useful as a rendevous populated list of shared network resources. Currently, its a decoy, confusing users into thinking that something is broken because nothing appears in their network.

Exactly. It should even appear unless there is something to go in there. I consider myself a knowledgeable user of the OS and on occasion I'll actualy click that damn icon looking for volumes on the network. Obvioulsy realizing milleseconds later that this is not the place to do it.

[Brass]

Originally posted by cwasko:
Exactly. It should even appear unless there is something to go in there. I consider myself a knowledgeable user of the OS and on occasion I'll actualy click that damn icon looking for volumes on the network. Obvioulsy realizing milleseconds later that this is not the place to do it.

Perhaps the item should be renamed "NetInfo" instead of "Network". That would describe it purpose a little more precisely.

[blizzard]

Thanks for the info, guys. Good to know where it came from! I still think it would be better to change it over to an actual network browser (SMB, ASP, anything connected to your comp). Seems like the most efficient use of space for the most people to me.

[JellyBeen]

Since most of us really don't care for it, would it be possible to make it "invisible" with a haxie or something?? Unsanity?? Thinkertool??
I'm sick of seeing it there, think of all the first time users. There should be a way to un-click it or something in System Pref's.

Just a thought..

[Alex Duffield]

Originally posted by Brass:
Perhaps the item should be renamed "NetInfo" instead of "Network". That would describe it purpose a little more precisely.

Even better yet, if you are not logging into a netinfo server, it should NOT BE THERE.

That way the 99.99% of mac users don't have to see something that is not relevant to them and only serves to confuse users.

It is truly incredible that Apple insists a 2 button mouse confuses users, but this is OK??!!??

[icruise]

When I saw this thread I said to myself "Yeah, what the hell is it for?" I guess I had sort of assumed that it was useful on systems with different kinds of networks than my own, or something, but it does seem to be useless for nearly everyone. Perhaps we should submit some feedback to Apple about this.

[Millennium]

The Network folder shouldn't be there when you're not on an NFS network. NFS is what's really important; there are other network directory services than NetInfo which can be used.

My college had a similar system set up with its computers in the CS labs (using Solaris). It was actually really cool; you could log into any machine on the network and transparently access your home directory and files. There are big advantages to this in school computer labs, and there are also advantages in a corporate setting. But for most home users it's useless, particularly given how painful NFS can be to set up in the first place.