I believe those icons are used in Network places if a device with a known model is on the local network. The BSOD device would represent Windows PCs with network shares, of course! I also recall seeing the Xserve icon for a qnap NAS on our network.
Setting it to the string RackMac or Xserve should get that icon.
Somebody pulled all the icons and their codes out here: https://callumgare.github.io/macos-device-icons/
I don't suppose someone can stick them up somewhere?
The Finder shows these icons for network volumes.
How does the Finder determine the model of the remote host? This is metadata in the _device-info._tcp Bonjour service record that is the server advertises. My Synology helpfully shows up as an Xserve, in fact:
$ dns-sd -L "synology" _device-info._tcp local
Lookup synology._device-info._tcp.local
DATE: ---Thu 07 Aug 2025---
0:24:28.117 ...STARTING...
0:24:28.378 synology._device-info._tcp.local. can be reached at synology.local.:0 (interface 14)
model=XserveWhile the normal file server showed up as a CRT with the legally distinct windows blue screen
fruit:model=ModelX,Y
2G isn’t written on the case, but everybody referred to it as “2G” to differentiate it from the newer model.
Maybe add a Dragon print on the cover as well? That would be so cool. I am also an adult.
> Dragon on the cover
I already said I'm in
And if it’s Dell, a built in rattle!
Best comment on HN today.
This is why people say less is more.
Now how do I get rid of extra ports if I don't need them?
My guess is that it's cheapest and lowest-risk to leave them in. It's not like most users are going to encounter them anyway.
That being said, if you know why there are icons for the "programmer's switch" icon (6, 6) and LocalTalk (at (2, 8)), which died out with the Old World Macs, send answers on a postcard...
Here someone even hacked an older version of Mac OS X to actually use the NeXT and Platinum styles: https://mastodon.social/@stroughtonsmith/110708615280659758
Why not the simpler version that they care less about maintenance and cleaning up obscure corners of the OS?
It's a big world with lots of people doing things other than the median.
Echoes like, if you look really closely, how window management without third-party tools is as garbage in 2025 as it was in 1984. Never change, love you Mac.
I also synced one of my iPod Shuffles over the weekend, and can tell you there's also still icons for all of the Shuffles back to the original gum stick ones, and all of the various colors of the other models, plus all of the regular iPods.
Shuffles are great for listening to music in bed because you don't have to worry about rolling over on them.
I used Macs from the 1980s up to 2000 or so, and I was very familiar with that icon of a hand with a tray and some files, but it wasn’t until today that I realised that it was a pun on ‘server’ used to mean what my dialect of English terms a ‘waiter.’
There’s probably a lesson about i18n in there somewhere!
What’s funny to me is how characterless I thought the half-volleyball iMac was at the time, compared to the classic Bondi blue iMac (and its awesome color variations too), but now when I compare it to Apple’s current offerings it has so very much more character. I miss the days of shape and colour and texture.
Lare2•6mo ago