Using Samba or Netatalk for Linux to Mac File Sharing
 

I don't have too much experience with Macs communicating with a Linux server but for what I have come across, Macs have a tremendous problem communicating with the Linux server I'm running. I've come across a number of problems and would like to find the best way to solve it. The server I have is a Dell running Suse 9.2 Pro. It has both Netatalk and Samba because the server needs to talk to both Macs and PCs.

After having a bunch of problems with Macs talking to the Linux server, I decided to search on these forums to hopefully find a solution. From the threads that I read so far, Samba seems to be the best file sharing program IF CONFIGURED CORRECTLY. That seems to be the consensus but I'm wondering does this apply to file sharing from Linux to both Mac and PC clients?

Currently I use Netatalk for the Macs to communicate. Netatalk is similar to Appletalk and I thought that maybe my problems could be solved if I use Netatalk. With Netatalk I have problems with Mac files not being able to transfer 90+ MB files. I'm not too familiar with Netatalk but the fact that it uses a file sharing system native to Appletalk appealed to me. I thought using Netatalk could limit the problems.

Basically I've come across a number of threads telling me Samba is very good if configured correctly. I've read a few Netatalk threads which says its best for sharing with Macs but because there's a low number of threads on Netatalk, I believe there's a huge bias on the forums which makes it difficult for me to come to an accurate conclusion. Which program really is best to have Macs talk efficiently to a Linux server?

Thanks for any help because I've been searching for a solution to this problem for nearly a month and haven't had any luck. Please help!

I'm far from expert, but since no one else seems to have jumped in I'll give you my two cents. I dabble with this on a small local network. I talk to old 68K Mac's running OS 6 and 7 as well as Windoze PCs from a linux box (not specifically a server). With these old Mac OS I believe on has to use Netatalk as they don't support samba. And with Windoze I believe the converse to be true, it only supports SMB (ie samba compatibility). For file sharing Netatalk sets up special AppleDouble directories on the linux disk to handle the HFS file system. Samba
and Windows won't understand these, but would be able to access the
data files. If you have modren Mac's that support SMB then I think that
is the way to go. Luck.