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Samba Wins eWeek & PC Magazine Award

Posted by timothy on from the infrastruction-and-stiflement dept.

frankie_guasch writes: "The award is "Innovation in Infrastructure" (i3) award for best Enterprise Software! And we beat out Sun Microsystems Java 2 Platform Standard Edition Version 1.4 and Bea Systems WebLogic Server 7.0 for the award, so I'm stunned that we won. These guys have marketing departments and a *budget.*" It's a strange contrast to the kind of attention that Samba is getting from Microsoft. (See these earlier posts for more on the CIFS situation.)

68 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Errr...so where's the announcement? by emag · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The linked eWeek article only mentions that Samba's a finalist, and that the winners will be announced May 7. Since it's past that date, where's a link to the actual winners list? Not that I'm doubting that Samba could easily beat out the others, but I need to rub someone's nose in the fact that Samba won.

    --
    "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." --H.L. Mencken
    1. Re:Errr...so where's the announcement? by flyfishin · · Score: 5, Informative

      here

    2. Re:Errr...so where's the announcement? by gorilla · · Score: 3, Informative

      IBM ZSeries for Linux also won, in the Internet hardware category.

  2. Re:Samba by InnereNacht · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember trying to configure samba about 3 years ago when I first started working with linux... Most of my pain was caused by trying to work with the shares as well.

    Nowadays theres so many howto's out, though. They made it a ton easier to get things done. Hell, I think you can even configure shares with SWAT now too which simplifies it even more.

    Kudos to the Samba team for a job well done!

  3. Quick answer to the CIFS problem by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 2, Interesting

    modularize Samba (it might be already, Ihave not looked) then make a module for supporting the CIFS and BSDL it. then add it to your GPL project.

    --



    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
    1. Re:Quick answer to the CIFS problem by lkaos · · Score: 2

      modularize Samba (it might be already, Ihave not looked) then make a module for supporting the CIFS and BSDL it. then add it to your GPL project.

      You have to understand, the Samba developers cannot _look_ at the MS specs at all. They can not look at code created from the MS specs.

      Have no fear, the MS extensions can be reverse engineered. Just give the Samba team a little time and all will be well.

      --
      int func(int a);
      func((b += 3, b));
    2. Re:Quick answer to the CIFS problem by lkaos · · Score: 2

      But the BSDL license cannot co-exist with the GPL. The GPL only works with IP impairing licenses.

      --
      int func(int a);
      func((b += 3, b));
  4. Re:Samba by DarkRabbit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Samba has a web front-end that makes it all very easy! Just connect to http://localhost:901!

  5. Samba is awesome by TuxLuvr · · Score: 5, Interesting
    When trying to explain the Open Source philosophy to my wife, I used Samba as an example: I set up a file server for her office running Samba on FreeBSD 4.5.

    When I showed her the bill for hardware and software, I pointed out that the reason she now has a blazing fast server with great hardware, under budget, is that I opted not to install Windows 2000 Server.

    "So how can my Windows 2000 laptop running QuickBooks connect so seamlessly and without any crashes ever" (ok ok i'm paraphrasing..) she inquired.

    I proceeded to explain the magic of Samba, and the development model which made it possible....

    Thanks for great software! : - )

    1. Re:Samba is awesome by DarkRabbit · · Score: 3, Funny

      ... When I showed her the bill for hardware and software, ...

      You bill your wife for hardware and software?

    2. Re:Samba is awesome by TuxLuvr · · Score: 5, Funny
      You bill your wife for hardware and software?

      LOL...yeah, I showed her the bill.... then I paid it!

      ; - )

    3. Re:Samba is awesome by greenfly · · Score: 2

      One thing to be careful with WRT running Quickbooks over a samba share is to make sure that you don't upgrade/restart samba while someone is running Quickbooks over the network. Quickbooks is VERY touchy about this and will end up crashing if this happens.

      Of course, it sounds like in your case you just set it up and let it be, but this is more for others who are considering a similar setup.

    4. Re:Samba is awesome by hij · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's weird. I did the same thing, but when I was done my wife only asked about the other things on the "to do" list.

      --
      Believe nothing -- Buddha
    5. Re:Samba is awesome by 4of12 · · Score: 2

      That's weird. I did the same thing, but when I was done my wife only asked about the other things on the "to do" list.

      No, you're weird - and lucky, too!

      My wife doesn't wait for me to be done with some task before she asks me about the other things on the "to do" list.

      --
      "Provided by the management for your protection."
    6. Re:Samba is awesome by RevAaron · · Score: 2

      What else would you expect other than "if the files go away, so does your data?" You seem to criticize Quicken for keeping records in both memory and files. How else is there to do it? If I delete a Gnumeric spreadsheet file, the data is gone. How else would you have it?

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  6. A great counter-argument by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 2
    I don't think anybody can seriously say these days "open source can't innovate". It's winning awards for it!

    But seriously, if anyone ever says to you "well open source just copies the corporates" point to projects like the Linux virtual server project, or Tux, or Beowulf. Now Linux has achieved, then exceeded state of the art in the server arena, I wonder how soon it'll be before we see the same in the desktop market.

    1. Re:A great counter-argument by BusterB · · Score: 2

      I attended a lecture by Steve French of IBM/Samba where this was explained from his slides. The following is part of his explanation:

      • People think of Microsoft when they think of CIFS since they coined the new name for the SMB protocol in 1996, soon after Sun announced the WebNFS extensions to NFSv3.
      • But Dr. Barry Feigenbaum (IBM) actually invented CIFS's predecessor SMB (originally called "BAF" protocol) in the mid-1980s and multiple companies contributed.
      • SMB is the X/Open (Open Group) "Standard for PC Interworking" (1992)
      • SMB/CIFS is the main network filesystem on OS/400, OS/2, DOS and other operating systems and implementations are available on most every major operating system for the past 10 years.
      • Storage Network Industry Association just released CIFS Technical Ref.
      • Unix and Macintosh extensions to CIFS are documented by SNIA and implemented

      You can (possibly ;P) see his lecture notes here. Warning: powerpoint slides.

    2. Re:A great counter-argument by RevAaron · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Heh. Samba isn't an innovation. It is a typical case of "open source just copies the corporates." If it wasn't for "the corporates," there wouldn't be a need for Samba. Why would people be so hot about SMB compatibility if it weren't for MS's huge install base? They wouldn't be.

      As far as the Linux Virtual Server Project and Beowulf, sorry to rain on your parade, but clustering was around for a long time before that. They're awesome projects, that bring clustering to us for free, but they do do anything that's really new.

      We'll likely never see the same in the desktop market. Anything truly new innovative is usually dismissed, because it is different than the status quo. Joe Sixpack end-users don't want innovative, they want what they're used to. Which is why KDE and GNOME aim to be like Windows and to a lesser extent Mac OS. Again, this isn't a slam on them per se, they make Unix more accessible for a lot of people, but they are largely copies of old ideas. And that's fine. Because they make the old ideas Free and accessible, which is a good thing.

      There are already innovative things out there, like Squeak and Self which use the Morphic GUI framework. Most people, especially most "open source" developers, dismiss it, because it's not like everything else they've used before it.

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
    3. Re:A great counter-argument by Zathrus · · Score: 2

      If it wasn't for "the corporates," there wouldn't be a need for Samba

      Nor would there be computers. Or much of the industrialized world.

      Why would people be so hot about SMB compatibility if it weren't for MS's huge install base?

      You miss the point.

      If there wasn't SMB, there would be something else. Maybe it would be NFS. But file and print sharing are needed well beyond the "corporate" arena. Just look at how many people use it at home for file and print sharing between computers.

      The nifty thing here is that Samba does it across platforms with relatively easy setup. And it does it cheaper, faster, and better than the company that invented (and continues to maintain) the thing. Which is a pretty sad statement.

    4. Re:A great counter-argument by Marx_Mrvelous · · Score: 2

      You're missing the point, and in another way, totally wrong. You say that Samba copies "the corporates," but I'd like to know what corporation wrong software that lets Windows and Linux, HPUX, Solaris, IRIX, and more all communicate together as easily as they can with samba.

      As to your other dismissals, you're missing the point. You don't understand the difference between the *appearance* of innovation and actual innovation. If I built a car that looks exactly like say, a Dodge Neon, but put in a fusion engine to power it indefinitely with no fuel, you wouldn't call that an innovation because, functionally, it's the same thing as a combusion-powered car.

      Something to think about...

      --

      Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
    5. Re:A great counter-argument by RevAaron · · Score: 2

      I'd love to think about it, but you didn't back yourself up. What do LVS Project or Beowulf do that's fundamentally different? What sets them apart other than that they're free? There would be something quite a bit different about a Neon with a fusion engine, indeed. But Kia making an $7000 SUV that uses the same ideas as a GMC SUV isn't an innovation, it's just cheaper.

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
    6. Re:A great counter-argument by RevAaron · · Score: 2

      > Nor would there be computers. Or much of the
      > industrialized world.

      To an extent. The acedemic world came up with a large amount of the 'innovations' we use today. What else do you expect? Open software developers can innovate, certainly, but for the most part they choose to copy. No one can know what the world would be like with no corporations.

      I don't miss the point, I think you do. I think you confuse the issue, and take "not innovative" to mean "crappy." A lot of people make that mistake, so it's not a big deal. That's not the case.

      It doesn't matter if it's SMB, NFS, or anything else. An open source implementation of a standard created or propagated by some business isn't innovative. It's practical and cool, but it's nothing new.

      Again, just because it's not innovative it doesn't mean it's not useful. Millions of people could use Samba- but what does that have to do with how innovative it is?

      The post to which I replied was praising Samba as an example of how it doesn't just copy existing software/protocols, but that it innovates. Samba is not an example of this. It's a great example of software that works (and works better in many cases than the older commercial versions). That's important. Just because Samba does slightly better what someone else invented, it sure doesn't mean it's innovative.

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
    7. Re:A great counter-argument by fferreres · · Score: 2

      Aaron, Samba is popular due to Windows popularity, yes. But it also extends SMB (has more features), and also, they are not reinventing the weel. We already HAD better alternatives, but these guys just took what was mainstream used and made it better, whiout any help from Microsoft and without any real budget.

      So this is why the get the award IHMO. Also, Microsoft innovating? How? Inventing a web browser? Inventing TCP/IP? Inventing a PC? Inventing the mouse? The graphical UI? The first DOS? The spreadsheet concept? Inventing the Messenger style communicators?

      Please let me know which innovations are from MS and I will begin to understand.

      --
      unfinished: (adj.)
    8. Re:A great counter-argument by RevAaron · · Score: 2

      Man, you do it too. Confuse my saying that Samba doesn't do anything innovative with "Samba sux0rz and M$ r00lz!!!" That's not what I'm saying.

      Slightly improving on something doesn't count as innovation. Well, according to Microsoft it does occasionally, but is that what you really want? For all open source projects to be just like MS even in their propaganda?

      That's great he did it with no help from MS (why would he get it from them?) and no budget. That's awesome, and open source and free software definitely can work. But just because it's useful it doesn't mean that it's innovative, it means that it works well. Samba has allowed connectivity between Unix and Windows for a huge heap of people. But that doesn't make it innovative, it makes it popular.

      In this case, MS didn't innovate either. They didn't invent the SMB/CIFS format. But they did popularize it, and if it weren't for MS making it relevant, no one would care about Samba. There's no reason a person on an all-Linux network would use Samba any more than they would AppleTalk.

      The very thing that makes Samba worthwhile is that MS popularized it. Sure, SMB/CIFS exists in LanMAN, OS/2 and others, but those are piddly in comparison with the install base of Windows which has driven the development of Samba. Maybe you're not comfortable with that, but perhaps you shouldn't be using Samba+Windows.

      What in the slashkiddie brain equates "open source project doesn't innovate" with "Microsoft does?" There's not some cosmic dichotomy between OS/FS and MS, where is one doesn't innovate in a particular area the other one does by default.

      I don't use any MS products, except for at a 6 hr/week job. I'm not sure why the string of MS products has to do with this.

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
    9. Re:A great counter-argument by Marx_Mrvelous · · Score: 2

      What do they do that's fundamentally different? Almost everthing. I'm not going to list any because in your argument, you don't go into detail about how say, Beowulf is different from other clusters that have been around years. Any search for Beowulf technology on say, google will reveal hundreds of new features and methodologies employed.

      In short, your approach, to dismiss these projects as simply derivative, is antagonistic, pesimistic, and ignorant. You're obviously not a computer scientist.

      --

      Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
    10. Re:A great counter-argument by RevAaron · · Score: 2

      Heh. I think the problem is that I'm a pragmatic computer scientist rather than a businessman or someone who mans the help desk. I don't throw around words like 'innovative' when they're not deserved. However, since it's easily forgotten around here, just because a project isn't innovative, it doesn't mean that it's bad, not useful, or an unneeded copy of someone else's work.

      Admittedly, my area of study (or personal interest) isn't clustering, but if you're an expert, what are some things that Beowulf *does* do fundamentally different? The "just go check google" excuse is cop-out.

      No, I don't dismiss them as 'simply derivative." That's your spin on it. They recycle old ideas, but do so in a way that makes them more accessible for more people. That's very commendable, but hardly innovative. I admit that my words have been antagonistic with people that cannot distinguish "innovative" and "good," or "not innovative" and "worthless."

      Being emotional and knee-jerk about it doesn't change my opinion, or the facts. I'm sorry that you feel that my not praising something for what it is not is a crime, but I think that praising such projects for their actual strengths is far better.

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
    11. Re:A great counter-argument by Marx_Mrvelous · · Score: 2

      I'm not supproting my argument because you're not supporting yours; never once did you use any specific claims, ie sections of code, philosophy, or even the protol used for these technologies.

      Anyways you're dead set that just because they use a MS protocol it doesn't deserve praise, and this is where I disagree. Again I say, it's completely innovative because they built it themselves, and made it cross platform; something that has never been done before.

      --

      Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
    12. Re:A great counter-argument by fferreres · · Score: 2

      I ask you a question, what good is innovating if you can't comunicate? Samba allows comunication. It's NOT supposed to be innovative.

      I understand your point but fail to understand your critic. Open Source HAS indeed innovated in many areas. But that doesn't mean you don't need products that people already use and find very usefull not to say a must have. Thus the replacement or "coping" of some windows apps. But Microsoft didn't invent them either so the credit goes to some small companies and invididuals and nobody gives them a god damn credit about that.

      I which "usefull" innovative products get recognition, yet value a lot the fact that i Samba allows me to deploy Linux NOW where would be otherwise imposible.

      --
      unfinished: (adj.)
    13. Re:A great counter-argument by RevAaron · · Score: 2

      Again, you're having a problem figuring out that just because something isn't innovative, it doesn't mean that it's worthless. Samba is definitely a worthwhile recipient of praise, no doubt; however, it's not innovative. I've said this over and over again- what is so confusing?

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  7. Re:Samba by silicon_synapse · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Has anyone tried sharity? (http://www.obdev.at/products/sharity/index.html)? I got a license for it a while back but haven't gotten around to trying it.

  8. Samba will never really catch on ... by shrikel · · Score: 5, Funny
    ... until it has been ported to Windows.

    (It's a joke. Laugh.)

    --
    Any sufficiently simple magic can be passed off as mere advanced technology.
    1. Re:Samba will never really catch on ... by user32.ExitWindowsEx · · Score: 2, Funny

      You might have to, to maintain forward compatibility with newer versions of Windows.

      --
      "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
  9. Re:Samba by tempest303 · · Score: 2

    It is a little tricky. There are definitely harder things to do right (as opposed to say, Sendmail, which is probably being the canonical example of Hard To Configure Correctly), but it could be a lot easier.

    Yeah, I know there are tools out there, like the Ximian Setup Tools, and SWAT, but I don't think they cut it all the way. I like getting a listing of all my shares in one place, ala XST and SWAT, but just to add shares needs to be as simple as Windows makes it. I should be able to add shared folders to the network just by right-clicking the folder's icon in Nautilus (or in Konq, if that's your flavor). I know I've seen this brought up for Nautilus in the past, so after GNOME 2 ships, hopefully this will get added. Any KDE users know if Konq has plans to do this?

    <flamebait>
    Nautilus 2 has beaten it's big gripe - it's finally quite speedy - when's Konq gonna simplify that button encrusted, "mystery-meat"-toolbar-icon-laden interface, eh? ;)
    </flamebait>

    --
    The Free desktop that Just Works
  10. And the three are by MosesJones · · Score: 4, Insightful


    1) Samba - Created to bypass MS braindead sharing, and to allow Linux to act as file servers, so HW and OS platform choice is irrelevant

    2) Java - Created to make HW + OS Platform choice irrelevant

    3) BEA, based on a standard approach to app servers that makes chosing the HW and OS a best fit decision.

    Anyone spot the connection ? 3 Tools all made to bring together disparate environments.

    But of course this sort of thing can't be done, you can't be modular, you can't be portable, you can't be flexible (Java comes in versions for Smart Cards, Phones, PDAs, PCs, Servers and Mainframes) I know that because the DOJ believe it.

    --
    An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
    1. Re:And the three are by CynicTheHedgehog · · Score: 2
      Anyone spot the connection ? 3 Tools all made to bring together disparate environments.


      Isn't this the very nature of "enterprise" software?
    2. Re:And the three are by RevAaron · · Score: 2

      That's his point, speedy. :)

      --

      Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
    3. Re:And the three are by swb · · Score: 2

      Heh, that wasn't the definition of the IBM enterprise.

  11. Congrats, guys by GMFTatsujin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've got a teenie three-node network at home - two Windows computers and a Mandrake server. It's not much, but it gets me there. :)

    Samba is absolutely the most important service running on the server. It lets my wife and I share files, print whenever we like, and maintain private backups off of our computers. I'd put it down as the single most useful software package for anyone who wants to run a home network. It's the one we use most often and most transparently. Well, that and Squid...

    When Microsoft completely and irrevocably blocks out Samba, that's when Windows goes out the door forever. But seeing as how we haven't budged from 98SE since it came out, I don't know that's really going to be a problem.

    Smaba team, you folks rock my weird little computing world. Well done, and totally deserved.
    GMFTatsujin

  12. Couldn't have done it without you, Microsoft by inveterate+revisioni · · Score: 2, Funny

    Isn't it amazing that a ubiquitous software company's (MS) ill-designed (SMB), poorly implemented (NETBios) system for exposing resources to a network has become so pervasive and constricting that the IT industry starts giving _high_ _honors_ to an open-source product (Samba) that essentially embodies an acknowledgment that SMB will not evolve into something more sensible (NFS, for example) any time soon? So what should the authors say at the acceptance ceremony? "Thanks Microsoft. We couldn't have done it without you!"

    1. Re:Couldn't have done it without you, Microsoft by Jeremy+Allison+-+Sam · · Score: 5, Funny

      Nope, I thanked Richard Stallman for creating the GPL and the FSF for helping us with legal issues :-).

      And I had to wear a suit :-) :-).

      Here is proof :-) :-)

      Jeremy Allison,
      Samba Team.

    2. Re:Couldn't have done it without you, Microsoft by joib · · Score: 2

      About SMB suckiness and NFS:

      "NFS also sucks but for different reasons"

      -- Jeremy Allison himself at http://slashdot.org/interviews/00/03/24/0752258.sh tml

  13. slashdot me by hij · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I can't believe that PC Magazine would even consider samba. I just assumed that they only paid attention to companies that bought massive amounts of ad space from their magazine. Go figure. Then again, maybe they figured that this would be a good way to get slashdotted.

    Come to think of it, maybe that's the way to spread the gospel of open source. Recognize good stuff and get slashdotted...

    --
    Believe nothing -- Buddha
  14. Congrats Samba Team ... by ultraslide · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The Enterprise will learn what alot SMBs already know. Samba rocks as a drop in replacement for an NT file and print box.
    In small offices all the users need to know is that they have a new domain password. And poof! NT is gone.
    If you're admin in a small business or support/consult for multiple ones, sit down with the deci$ion maker and compare the virtues of *bsd/*nix running Samba to WinNT/2k with its licencing and security issues.
    You WILL close the deal.
    No wonder MS would like to see them go away.

    the 'slide

    --
    "Corporate rock still sucks. What are you gonna do about it?"
  15. Re:Duh by 2names · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Your comment should be "Anything that replaces NT/2000 IS at a reduced cost and is great in my book." I hate to throw around buzz words, but if you're talking TCO here, Microsoft will lose every time.

    --
    "I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
  16. Why not port it to Windows? by swb · · Score: 2

    It's not such a crazy idea. OK, I know it sounds redundant, but it may be a way around security problems inherent in built-in Windows file sharing as well as promote compatibility with other Samba servers on the same segment or for standardization purposes. Is there a licensing workaround in there somewhere as well?

    Given the CygWin environment, it should be at least *possible* to port it.

    1. Re:Why not port it to Windows? by lkaos · · Score: 2

      Given the CygWin environment, it should be at least *possible* to port it.

      Nope, not at all. Samba is not just a Posix application, but a pretty platform dependent _Unix_ application. Besides, there is no real way to mount file systems under Windows since there kernel is all whacko.

      --
      int func(int a);
      func((b += 3, b));
    2. Re:Why not port it to Windows? by kaisyain · · Score: 2, Informative

      Sure there is. What do you think mountvol does?

  17. Already here in both by Sits · · Score: 2

    Both nautilus and konqueror already support this in Mandrake 8.2 if you enable users to be able to share their directories -

    Do you want to allow users to export some directories in their home?
    Allowing this will permit users to simply click on "Share" in konqueror and nautilus.

  18. Re:Samba by RevAaron · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Christ. Are some moderators that jerky that they mark a guy as flamebait because he thinks it's difficult? Man, that's sad. And lame. But then again, this is Slashdot!

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  19. Re:Samba by RevAaron · · Score: 2

    Just out of curiousity, why did you buy it if you weren't planning on using it?

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  20. J2EE isn't software by mgkimsal2 · · Score: 2

    My understanding was that it was a spec, not software itself. Am I wrong? Or was this Sun's implementation (software) of the J2EE spec?

    --
    creation science book
    1. Re:J2EE isn't software by JohnA · · Score: 2

      Correct... J2EE is a spec, J2SE is a VM specification and platform. Sun was nominated for the J2SE toolkit. J2SE 1.4 is pretty impressive, but I agree that Samba is quite amazing, and worthy of the award.

  21. Too bad it won't be around... by Kefaa · · Score: 2

    I wonder if MS will continue to use the leverage of DMCA to ensure SAMBA's demise. A great product is about to meet the MS giant if the DOJ settles like it appears it wants to.

    Great job folks. I hope we get to see new releases for years to come and I do not mean to rain on your parade. Instead I wish to remind everyone what is at stake in this.

  22. Cnet Samba Article by savaget · · Score: 2

    Microsoft's File-Share Rule Makes Waves

  23. MS questioned over CIFS license in antitrust trial by Andy+Tai · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is worth pointing out here that, as mentioned in the linked yahoo story (also appeaing in news.com), Microsoft's corporate vice president in charge of the innards of Windows, Rob Short, has been questioned over the CIFS license issue by the states' lawyers. It is interesting to see what kind of impact will the anti-GPL CIFS license have in the outcome of the trial.

    --
    Free Software: the software by the people, of the people and for the people. Develop! Share! Enhance! Enjoy!
  24. Re:Samba's Long-Term Health in Danger? by Jeremy+Allison+-+Sam · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes we will. Please see this statement for details.

    Jeremy Allison
    Samba Team.

  25. Re:Samba by svirre · · Score: 2

    We tried it on a sun at work. When we found that it was incompatible with Cadence Silicon Ensemble we threw it out and set up a NFS server instead.

    Basically what happened was that for some reason SE wanted to enumerate all files mounted with sharity. Thus taking forever to start.

  26. Re:Samba by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 2

    Tell me more about this - I've got samba running running under Debian/Woody on Sparc but haven't noticed anything about a web interface.

  27. Re:Samba by RevAaron · · Score: 2

    Heh, ok. That makes sense then. :)

    --

    Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
  28. Guess it's time for it to catch on! by Selanit · · Score: 2

    Because it's *been* ported to Win32. Point your browser to:

    http://main.mswinxp.net/~lpackham/smbclient/

    Unfortunately, the site seems to be down at the moment . . . here's the Google cache. The package is also mentioned at the Cygwin Contributed Packages Page.

    How do I know all this? I asked the same question last week. Thanks to ashpool7 for answering *my* question. Heh.

  29. Re:Safe as a server, in a business environment? by autechre · · Score: 2


    What do you mean by "serious"?

    I used Samba as a fileserver when I worked for a .com. We only had 20-30 employees, so if you're talking about a company with zillions of employees, I can't really tell you anything.

    I also use it as a fileserver in a university environment (newspaper); that's only with about 7 client machines, though the same machine is also running netatalk to serve these files to Macintoshes, acting as a print server for the office (HP Laserjet 4000N), and running XDM to serve 3 X-terminals (which means it also runs Mozilla, StarOffice, GAIM, etc.). And all of this on a P-II 300 with 128M of RAM (when I inherited this machine, it was running Netware 3).

    I haven't had any problems with it in either situation.

    --
    WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
  30. Re:Duh by AJWM · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I shouldn't feed the troll, but...

    Windows supports most hardware

    Really? I've got this old SPARCStation that I just couldn't get Windows running on no how. Booted up and installed fine when I tried Linux (SuSE 7.3 SPARC).

    Ditto for a couple of old PPC Macs I have -- even though Win NT 4 claims to support PPC.

    Even on x86, I spend far more time futzing with the Windows machines than the Linux ones -- and time is money.

    Oh, and as for "you can find Windows admins dirt cheap" -- you get what you pay for. I'd sooner spend the money on an admin (whatever the OS) who knows what he's doing than spend the money on downtime, hacked sites and general cleanup after one of those "dirt cheap" ones.

    --
    -- Alastair
  31. Re: Data Integrity by KidSock · · Score: 2

    I expect [Quickbooks] to write [the data] to [a] file and not trash the [data if the files] unexpectedly go away.

    Like this?

    E325: ATTENTION
    Found a swap file by the name ".taxes.qbk.swp"
    owned by: miallen dated: Thu May 9 19:06:10 2002
    file name: ~miallen/taxes.qbk
    modified: no
    user name: miallen host name: CRAPPYWS
    process ID: 65534
    While opening file "taxes.qbk"

    (1) The Windows file server crashed.
    If this is the case, be careful not
    to by Windows servers in the future.
    Quit, or continue with caution.

    (2) Quickbooks friggn' crashed (again *sigh*).
    If this is the case, use "file > recover"
    or "quickbooks -r taxes.qbk"
    to recover the changes (seek help about
    recovery on the Internet or something).
    If you did this already, try again. If that
    didn't work try upgrading to the latest
    service pack. If still no luck try to reboot.
    If that still doesn't work, delete the swap
    file ".taxes.qbk.swp" to avoid this message.
    "taxes.qbk" [New File]
    Hit ENTER or type command to continue

  32. Can you hear my head shake in disgusted disbelief? by alumshubby · · Score: 2

    Astonishing, really, the lengths to which Microsoft seems to go sometimes to piss on their own shoes. Here, they demonstrate by their hamfisted tactics how great is their disdain for the rest of computerdom. It's to ponder: Does no one in their executive boardroom consider that, in shoving Open Source developers more fully away from having anything to do with Microsoft, they're increasing the likelhood of their own eventual irrelevance?

    --
    "How many light bulbs does it take to change a person?" --BMcC-->
  33. Re:Samba by Radical+Rad · · Score: 2

    Yes but it shouldn't require reading How-to's and FAQ's. It should be no harder than networking using native ms windows.

    And does anyone know what ever happened to the explorer-like network/file browser that Corel Linux had? I remember trying Corel for a while and setting up SMB shares and connecting to them on ms window boxes was painless. Was that code kept proprietary by Corel? Who owns it now?

  34. Re:Samba by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 2

    I just noticed :) - apt-get install swat - then you modify inetd.conf (assuming its installed) slightly and presto - should just work - did for me first try even.

  35. Re:Safe as a server, in a business environment? by hij · · Score: 2

    We use it in a university environment. We have about 40 clients for sharing files and printing. The great thing is that if you want to add a user you just do it. Best of all, you don't have to use it on a "serious" server. We have a couple of labs and needed a "serious" print server with remote access in each lab which could also temporarily keep files for assignments. The cheapest most effective way was to install linux and samba on a bunch of very old machines that were slated for termination. Its like free recycling!

    --
    Believe nothing -- Buddha
  36. Re:Samba by Radical+Rad · · Score: 2

    Client actually. It has been a couple of years since I looked at Corel but I remember their SMB browser was integrated with file and possible FTP. And it was installed and pre-configured by default. Why can't Redhat do this? It would make a major difference in the acceptance of Linux as a desktop OS. And make my life easier.