Does anyone have a good explanation as to why the Network Utility application has been deprecated in Big Sur? I have figured out that if you just bring a copy of Network Utility from Catalina up, it works without a problem in Big Sur... I'm just confused as to why it is gone and we have to revert back to using terminal to do our network diagnostics.
Technically, any kind of guesses or speculation about Apple policies or decisions would be against the Apple Support Communities Use Agreement.
I can tell you my own personal experiences and leave you to draw your own conclusions. I pretty much stopped using Network Utility before it was deprecated. One of the things I used it for was to do whois lookups on domains and IP addresses. It used to work pretty well for that years ago. But lately, those lookup tables have become more and more decentralized. You can't reasonably do a whois lookup on any domain these days. Most use private registration anyway. But these days, you have to know the registrar before you can even do a lookup. You can't just use Network Solutions anymore. Even IP address lookups are more difficult, if not impossible now. Who owns that IP? Probably Amazon. Who isn't on AWS these days? I know I am.
So here you have me, a relatively sophisticated user, who barely used the tool at all to being with, using it less and less due to changes in the internet overall.
Network Utility was always just a wrapper around the command-line tools anyway.
That is interesting. I have a mini that I upgraded from Catalina to Big Sur. Network Utility is still in the Dock and still in /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications, which is where Network Utility has lived since the release of Mavericks.
The version is 1.9.2, which is the same version and location of the Network Utility on my iMac running Catalina. But that Network Utility launches and works.
So, the upgrade to Big Sur does not change the version number but does write something to the application that makes it put up that message that it's been deprecated and keeps it from launching all the way.
So, if you insert a copy from Catalina, post-upgrade, it works fine? Cool! Good to always have an older system around!
I don't think you were asking a rhetorical question, but no one here would know why Apple does anything. This is another example of them making a change without providing us any forewarning or reason. Like a number of us, I found the Network Utility to be a helpful app. Why Apple decided to remove it in macOS Big Sur doesn't appear to make any sense ... at least, not to me.
As such, I suggest that folks submit their concern directly to Apple. Maybe, they may reconsider adding it back in a future update. At least, as michaeltag has mentioned, you could still use a copy from an earlier macOS release.
You are correct in that it wasn't a rhetorical question. And I am also aware that Apple won't reply here with why they made the choice to remove it. I posed my question here with the hopes that someone might be able to come up with an answer that sounded feasible.
For example, if there was some security flaw that the old utility posed that was known about? (extremely unlikely)
Or possibly (like with macOS Server) there is a push from Apple towards open source solutions that don't have to be updated by Apple and this might be another? (more likely)
Just looking for some ideas from this community of extremely smart people who are very generous with their time and insights. If every suggestion needs to be prefaced with a disclaimer that the replies are all speculation: that's fine by me.
Great answer.. and yes, while it was a wrapper, it was a convenient one. :-)
Network Utility
