Samba Team Announces Samba 2.2.5

GTO-Crank writes "Here's the changlog with all the fixes, enhancments, and sorce code for the new release of Samba 2.2.5. Also worth taking a look is this tutorial called "Using an LDAP directory for Samba authentication", and this tutorial called "Using Samba as a primary domain controller"."

Comments

Saw this on freshmeat a while ago.

[oliverthered]

This is just a minor update by the looks of the change log, nothing much there for Linux users.
A few compile fixes etc.. for HP/SUN users (who probably account for the majority of samba relient peoples)

Isn't freshmeat the place for this kinda anouncement , especially seeing as 2.2.5 was release 6 days ago!

Re:IBM is slashdotted?

[4of12]

I don't work for IBM and don't have first hand experience with their services setting up web sites, but I suspect that they know how to set up a capable high traffic web site (didn't they do the Olympics a while back?)

OTOH, if I'm correct, that leaves two other options:

1. someone powerful is deliberately Slashdotting that article;
2. a heck of a lot of people are genuinely ininterested in learning how to use Samba as a PDC.

Take your pick:)

Re:IBM just has poor management.

[Rick the Red]

If you're eliminating Microsoft products, why do you need samba? :)

I know you were being funny, but I've asked the same question: Why use Samba to serve Linux files to Windows PCs? Why not use NFS on the Windows PCs to reach those Linux files? Apparantly that's not a good idea. It's even in the NFS HowTo: "[the NFS How To] will also not cover PC-NFS, which is considered obsolete (users are encouraged to use Samba to share files with PC's)"

I would really appreciate any pointers to an open (GPL, BSD, whatever) NFS client for Windows, as I'd much rather go that route. Google searches turn up "free" demos of commercial software; the only open client I can find is PC-NFS, which is depricated (although I may try it anyway).

Can anyone please explain why NFS on Windows is such a "bad idea" -- or did Samba simply kill PC-NFS? Is it a better idea now, in the face of M$ patents threatening to kill Samba?

Re:IBM just has poor management.

[Neon Spiral Injector]

I think the orginal poster ment, if you are eliminating Microsoft products, why would you still have Windows PCs to share files from Samba?

You could be doing, NFS/CODA between all your Linux workstations.

Re:IBM just has poor management.

[Rick the Red]

I think the orginal poster ment, if you are eliminating Microsoft products, why would you still have Windows PCs to share files from Samba?

Because we're still eliminating Microsoft products, we haven't eliminated them yet.

You could be doing, NFS/CODA between all your Linux workstations.

Exactly! And I want the Windows PCs to use the same protocols as the rest of the network. I don't want to force the network to conform to the minority Windows clients, I want the Windows clients to conform to the network! You're making my case for me -- thanks.

Samba on Linux vs. NFS on windows

[Outland Traveller]

The practical answer to your question is that almost every NFS implementation for windows is slow, buggy, and expensive while SAMBA for most unixes is fast, stable, and free.

On the technical side I would even offer the opinion that CIFS (SMB) is a better file sharing protocol than NFS. For one thing, it is MUCH easier to secure.

Unfortunately, for all its ease of use NFS is a pretty crappy way to share files, even under unix. All those people who whine constantly about replacing the perfectly reasonable X server should really be complaining about replacing NFS.

I have a feeling that all those whiners are single desktop users who never get the idea of network computing.

Re:Samba on Linux vs. NFS on windows

[Rick the Red]

So, in a pure Unix network, would you run SMB? Or what? I'd really like to know what you use to share files in a pure Unix environment. Outland Traveller? Anyone?

Re:Samba on Linux vs. NFS on windows

[Outland Traveller]

I think you're making the mistake that simply because something is the most popular solution, it is therefore ideal.

I didn't say NFS wasn't entrenched everywhere, I said that it sucked. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

Nor did I claim that there was a good alternative, but the lack of alternatives doesn't make NFS suck less. It still sucks exactly as much.

Filesystems like Coda have promise but are still immature. I personally would love it if Linux supported SMB as a filesystem interface like it is on most other platforms. Instead we have to use an ftp-like client. I'm very glad that the client exists in the first place, of course, but it would need to be implemented as a filesystem in order to replace NFS.

Re:Samba on Linux vs. NFS on windows

[Rick the Red]

OK, but you didn't answer my question: What do you use to share files in a pure Unix environement? Or do you use NFS like everybody else, even though it sucks? :-)