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Samba 2.2.0 Released
Samba 2.2.0 - Powering the next generation of Network Attached Storage.
17 April 2001.
The Samba Team is proud to announce a new major release of Samba, version 2.2.0. This release includes significant feature enhancements for Samba, and sets the standard for UNIX® and Microsoft Windows® integration.
Enhancements include :
oIntegration of server terminated leases (Windows "oplocks") with UNIX NFS sharing (Linux 2.4 kernel and IRIX only). Complete data and locking integrity when sharing files between UNIX and Windows.
oAbility to act as an authentication source for Windows 2000® and Windows NT® clients, allowing savings on the purchase of Microsoft® Client Access Licenses.
oFull support for the automatic downloading of Windows 2000 and Windows NT printer drivers, providing the first full implementation of the Windows NT point-and-print functionality independent of Microsoft code.
oUnification of Windows 2000 and Windows NT Access control lists (ACLs) with UNIX Access control lists. Allow Windows clients to directly manipulate UNIX Access control entries as though they were Windows ACLs.
oSingle sign-on integration using the winbind server (available separately). Allow UNIX servers to use Windows 2000 and Windows NT Domain controllers as a user and group account server. Manage all user and group accounts from a single source.
oMicrosoft Distributed File System® (DFS) support. Samba 2.2.0 can act as a DFS server in a Microsoft network.
oShare level security setting. Allow security on Samba shares to be set by Microsoft client tools.
oMany other feature enhancements and bug fixes.
About Samba
Samba is an Open Source/Free Software implementation of the Microsoft CIFS/SMB protocols for UNIX systems. In development for ten years, Samba is considered to be the reference implementation of the CIFS/SMB protocol for UNIX systems. Samba test tools are used by all the CIFS/SMB vendors to test and fix their protocol implementations.
Samba is currently used in Network attached storage (NAS) and other products from the following vendors (Note: this does not imply endorsement by these vendors, please contact the vendor marketing departments separately for comments).
IBM®, SGI® (Samba for IRIX), Sun Microsystems ®(Cobalt Qube), Hewlett Packard® (CIFS/9000), VERITAS®, VA Linux Systems®, REALM Information Technologies ®, Network Concierge®, Procom ® and many others.
In addition, Samba is shipped as a standard part of Linux® offerings from Linux vendors such as Red Hat®, Caldera®, SuSE®, Mandrake®, TurboLinux ® and others.
Samba is being used worldwide to solve the problem of integrating hetrogeneous networks by corporations such as Agilent Technologies ®, CISCO Systems ®, and many others in addition to educational establishments and individuals
Best of all Samba is an Open Source/Free software project, available under the GNU GPL license meaning that source code for Samba is freely available for anyone to modify and customize.
Code from the Samba Team and individuals around the world has been integrated and tested to create Samba. In addition the following corporations have made significant donations of code, effort, testing facilities and support to make this release possible :
Linuxcare (now TurboLinux), VA Linux Systems, Caldera, SGI, Hewlett Packard, VERITAS, IBM.
This new release may be downloaded from our Web site at :
For press enquiries about this release please contact either Jeremy Allison (jra@samba.org), Andrew Tridgell (tridge@samba.org) or John Terpstra (jht@samba.org).
Samba - the SOURCE for Windows Networking !
one man's flame is another man's fire...
His comments would have been more tempered if he said "environment they are used to" instead of "more stable, [yada]".
But that wouldn't be saying anything different.
/me ducks
Seriously though, having moved from a Linux environment to a Windows recently, I can attest that Windows is more stable these days than it was. But check this out, I just had to visit a company yesterday that I installed a samba server in over a year and a half ago.
I had never had to visit them since the time I installed it, until now that they are having hardware problems with the case its housed in. They aren't Linux gurus so I can attest that they haven't touched it.
I wonder if anyone can say they have a NT box in a production commercial environment that they haven't had to touch in 18 months, nay not even a reboot.
On my linux box at home, if my wife does something strange, like run tuxracer even though we don't have 3d acceloration, I can log in from work and fix it for her, while she is logged in and without stepping on what she is doing.
I know there is remote admin tools for NT and 2000, but honestly, they aren't as powerful and/or they interupt what the user is doing.
So, I hope this is more insiteful and evenhanded, but I don't need any more karma.
~^~~^~^^~~^
I'm not a bloody Aussie, I've never even *been* to bloody Australia :-). I'm from *Sheffield* (where they do "the Full Monty" :-) :-).
You're thinking of *Andrew*. He's a bloody Aussie !
Bloody foreigners, not knowing the difference between Australia and the UK, I dunno... mumble, grumble....
:-).
Cheers,
Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.
This is why winbind is so useful for creating Samba appliances. No more local users or groups, just drop the thing into the NT domain and go....
Cheers,
Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.
Actually, the line I use when developing Samba is :
:-) :-). Plus we run Samba though the IRIX compiler (which is also very, very picky....).
-Wall -Wshadow -Wstrict-prototypes -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-qual
to get *really* medieval on the code... (with apologies to "Pulp Fiction"
Cheers,
Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.
A "braindamage implementation issue" is a printer driver server design that expects to be able to run printer driver binaries *ON THE SERVER THAT IS SERVING THEM OUT TO CLIENTS*. If you think back to the dim and distant past, when NT ran on other things than an Intel CPU then you'll realize how broken this is.....
:-).
Of course that's been fixed by that "portable" OS, Windows 2000
As Samba runs on other things than x86 boxes this is braindamage for us...
Regards,
Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.
It means it's not completely a PDC, 'cos it doesn't do replication or BDC Stuff yet - but it works well enough to put Windows 2000 or Windows NT clients into a Samba hosted domain, and have people log in and authenticate against it, and download profiles from it.
For many small sites this is all they need - not the full PDC stuff.
That's why I didn't say PDC, but used the phrase "authentication source".
Cheers,
Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.
9x clients were already supported by the 2.0.x codebase. They're also supported in the same way that W2k/NT servers do it in this new release.
:-).
I didn't mention it 'cos we already had that functionality - so it wasn't news
We've now got a *complete* (modulo bugs and one braindamage implementation issue, hang out on samba-technical@samba.org for details) implementation of W2k/NT point and print. That *includes* W9x driver download.
Cheers,
Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.
Someone needs to make an XBOX DVD with a ready-to-run SAMBA server on it. Pay $300.00, Plug XBOX into network, insert DVD, cancel
order for NT server.
greetings, eMBee.
--
Gnu is Not Unix / Linux Is Not UniX
Also, notice that this is hanging out in the elite new developers section!
Full support for the automatic downloading of Windows 2000 and Windows NT printer drivers, providing the first full implementation of the Windows NT point-and-print functionality independent of Microsoft code.
This is a huge acomplishment. Using samba's print services has always been a bit of a PITA in large networks. You get a print spooler that doesn't hang when you look at it funny but you had to install drivers for each printer on the workstations. Micrsoft's server products will automagicly provide a driver for clients when you connect to the shared printer, now samba does it too.
Hats of to Jeremy and the Samba team, this is a great feature.
Would have been kind of nice to see 9x clients supported too though.
Fact:
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010417/0071.html
Opinion:
Slashdot mentioned VA Linux in this article. This makes it more difficult to complain about the lack of "full disclosure". On the other hand, important material information is still missing.
It seems that in an effort to appear unbiased, the editors are reluctant to post anything about VA Linux at all, even when it is perfectly legitimate to do so. VA Linux hiring top level Samba developers is major news. Don't be ashamed, be proud!
In their effort to avoid being perceived as a PR arm of VA Linux, they are being somewhat evasive and this is backfiring.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
the most important server apps on Linux
...
And BSD
And AIX
And Solaris
And Irix
Does this version of Samba in essence emulate Microsoft's licensing agent, allowing free use of features that Microsoft wants you to pay for, or does this mean something else?
Sounds like something that could result in a tidal wave of lawsuits from Redmond.
Funny you should mention this situation. Are you familiar with Gateway Services for Netware included with Windows 2000 Server? What this allows you to do is set up a Novell server using IPX/SPX, connect a Win2k server to it with that service running, and an entire Win2k TCP/IP network of Windows clients can use the Novell server and only have to buy a single Netware license, since it's only using a single connection (the Win2k Server). Think of it as NAT for a Novell Server.
A tidal wave of lawsuits? I don't see any from Novell against Microsoft, why should Microsoft care if Samba beat them at thier own (dirty) game?
"Why didn't I join Microsoft? [LAUGHTER]"
This has to be one of the coolest bits of software for *nix. Especially with the ability to act as a PDC, it allows an option of what server you want to use to manage your windows clients. I'll go where I damn well please today, thanks.
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
Besides, installation of components in Linux is simpler than Windows (no rebooting), and the know-how needed to properly configure it will take an hour, maybe two to glean from the HOWTOs.
"You have to consider the cost of employing someone with the required skills"
Besides, the box of a Win 2k implementation might as well say "MCSE Not Included" right on it. At least with Linux you won't have to spend $1000's for the software on top of IT salaries
"Windows supports unattended installations"
"provided the configuration settings are correctly specified."
Like I said, "MCSE Not Included."