Re: Add Network Neighborhood to Nautilus

[snickell stanford edu]

> You also bring up another interesting issue.  For now most of the
> talk
> has been about file sharing protocols but any one computer, once
> they
> were discovered, could export multiple protocols.  Another question
> would be, "why do I care about protocols? I just want to know what
> services are available and from where."  In this case a list of all
> computers that export service I can use, be it file, print, fax, or
> others, should be listed in a browser.  Clicking on them would
> report
> the services available for that computer.  If I just wanted file
> servers
> I would be able to filter for that.  This would be sort of like a
> virtual LDAP server.  This is what I would like to see - the ability
> to
> drop a GNOME desktop into a network and with zero configuration I
> can
> see all services available to me.  Extream wishlist :-)

I'm not sure of the implementation feasibility (do all interesting
protocols allow us to determine a unique identifier, say IP address, for
the machine sharing resources, so we don't get computers showing up
twice?), but I generally like the idea of making protocol less visible
here. You're right, the user wants to access a particular resource not
"use SMB" or "use AppleTalk". There might also be some interface
conflicts, e.g. in how the various services allow heirarchy and such,
but if the implementation was feasible and the interface conflicts could
be overcome this would be a pretty slick system.

-Seth