Is Samba the best way of establishing interoperability with Windows file and print services when using Linux? Don't the latest Windows server releases make provision for this?

Not really. Some limited Unix service support has been available since NT4 service pack 1. It is always far behind the standards and generally pretty restricted. It does not support all protocols.

Samba is the best way to implement integrated account management (domain account authentication), disk sharing using CIFS/SMB, and print spooler publication (among other things) using native Microsoft protocols. It is NOT the ONLY way, just the best way to get all of that at once.

I have run operations both ways: with and without SAMBA. You really do need to have your objectives well defined in either case, but in general the more you want to integrate the more valuable SAMBA becomes.

What are your objectives? What prompted the question?

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Until Microsoft decides to start supporting the many tried and true open protocols out there, SAMBA will continue to be necessary. Microsoft doesn't want to support open standards, they want to lock people into their own proprietary system and tools to keep people from leaving (for examples, see basically everything Microsoft makes).

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I use samba the other way around. My home network is mostly centered around a linux server. My linux computers use its resources natively (ssh, nfs, etc. ...), but my family are still Win users so I also have samba running on the same linux server to enable them to use its shared file system. Haven't really looked for another solution - it works. Samba is also required for various media devices in the house (streaming boxes, Sonos speaker system ...) that can use smb/cifs (or DLNA, which I really don't like ...), but not nfs.

So in my case, I would say that samba is definitely still relevant to me.

Cheers.

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I use Samba every day.

It works.

Thanks for responding to the question. Your replies help me to decide where I should invest my learning efforts. I am determined to master the Linux world so that I can offer my clients the best solutions for their business. To-date I have always only offered Microsoft. The question was also asked because I needed to post a question to join the Forum so I thought I might as well ask something useful that has been in the back of my mind for a while.

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Welcome to linux, then, and to the forum, Dirk. Hope you enjoy it and return for further assistance and discussion.

Cheers !

Dirk, I think that it's very important in this business to be simultaneously aware of Windows and Linux, so that you can know when the use of each technology is indicated. Also, you can today expect to fairly-routinely find both types of systems at work in any "shop." You should be at-least very conversant in Linux, even if you choose to defer to other assistants or colleagues in doing actual work in that environment.

I don't think that there is any "bright-line rule" about the two technologies. I think it very much depends on how many features of "the Microsoft ecosystem" a particular "shop" takes advantage of. I do not consider "it's free!" to be a valid compelling-argument in favor of Linux technologies, in cases where the use of Windows technologies are otherwise indicated for technical or even cultural reasons.

You can learn a tremendous amount about Linux by setting it up in a VirtualBox environment on any convenient Windows host that you have. External disk drives are a great way to attach more storage. Experiment, in the relative safety of your own offices, with various configurations that you might consider recommending.

And, as always, "welcome!" to LQ. You will find here a group of friendly people who happen to be quite knowledgeable about both environments and who also routinely use both (and, Macs) in the course of a typical day.

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