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Comment by softwaredoug | Hacker News Reader

Something small I like about Windows: when I plug in Ethernet, it actually shows an Ethernet connection in the system tray. OSX seems to have a special icon for tethering to iPhone, but not Ethernet of all things. It just show the wifi icon, even when Ethernet is connected. Grr.

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It's also weird... it will use wifi (if connected) for some things and ethernet for others. It doesn't seem to matter which has priority in the network settings. I still haven't decided if this is a bug or a feature... So now when I get home I just disable wifi unless I need to use AirDrop. Bye bye unlock with Apple Watch! (Although the sheer range that it works at makes me not use it. That's a whole other thread I guess!)

I agree though. It would be nice to know which network was actually active in a dock/dongle situation.

It is physically plugged into the computer so you obviously don't need an icon cluttering your UI. This is the Apple design philosophy you paid extra for.

I'm glad that I can always see the other end of the ethernet cable, and therefore do not need a way to determine if there is an active connection.

Or it's physically plugged in, but the driver stopped working with the last OS update and it never bothered to tell you, it's just been using wifi and you never noticed, because there wasn't any indicators.

My computer has USB-C ports, not Ethernet ports. ;)

I’m a sketchy dongle away from a client zoom call going poorly.

The cable being plugged in tells you nothing about the state of the connection at the upper layers. Also, the icon doubles as a shortcut to connection status and settings panels.

Do you think it's clutter? Drag the icon to the overflow menu, you won't see it again unless looking for it. This is why I value customizability and use Windows.

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