Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Releases CIFS Docs -- Free Ball & Chain
juan large moose writes: "Microsoft has released documentation on the CIFS protocol suite, but there may be a catch.
The license says that the documentation is available for review, but no one may implement the described technology without signing a 'royalty-free' license agreement. Some reviewers are reporting that the document provides less information than the earlier IETF DRAFT CIFS specification, and may in fact be a cleaned-up version of an outdated Storage Network Industry Association CIFS Document. These other documents do not have the restrictive license."
does this mean that samba will do a better job of SMB now?
Why all this wailing and pissing about MS not providing free and unfuckingfettered access to their shit? Here's the deal, and I will be as fucking concise and clear about this as possible: If CIFS doesn't give you a stiffy, then use something else. If the licensing agreement makes you clench your fist and scream "mothafucka mothafucka mothafucka mothafucka" then don't use it. Quite simple. I'm no MBA. I didn't write any books that got reviewed on slashdot, but I will tell you this: Microsoft doesn't want people competing against them with their own products.
If I give a bum a roll of pennies, and he clenches his fist and socks me in the junk destroying my ability to bring profane motherfucking babies into the world, I'll be upset, to say the least.
But think about this small cornnut studded turd of wisdom: their Common fucking file system won't be too fucking common if developers don't use it.
...someone like Jeremy Allison to describe the practicalities, not only of the licensing terms, but also the accuracy and the completeness of this specification document.
I have to wonder, too, just how relevent the information is from the standpoint of timeliness.
Is this something that is practically out of the bag anyway and therefore of little effective monetary value to Microsoft at this time?
It's almost certainly of some political value for them to release an interface specification of any kind at this point in time, considering the stakes at risk at the outcome of their current trials and settlement agreement.
Someone from the Samba team, someone that attempts to reverse engineer things like SMB, Active Directory and NTFS would have a much better insight into the meaning of this than most people.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Microsoft has released source code to their .NET CLI for Windows XP and FreeBSD. It has been released under their shared source license. Article and download available here.
I am a (java)developer, so this is a huge deal to me. I submitted it to slashdot yesterday and it was rejected. It is posted over on kuro5shin somewhere. I would think this would be VERY helpful for the mono team.
mp3's are only for those with bad memories