Network names don't resolve in mac

You can do it on a Mac thanks to Bonjour/Zeroconf, and if you install Bonjour for Windows you can get at your Windows boxes as well (also available at the page linked above). The only thing is you add ".local" to the name. So if your computer is named "felix", Bonjour lets you connect to it as "felix.local".

Unlike the Windows-only solution you're used to, this is platform independent. Bonjour/Zeroconf is an open protocol that's available for all major OSes. The Linux/BSD way to use it is an app called Avahi.