Should I Mount Shared Folders or Use Symbolic Links?
 

I am using Linux Mint 17.1 as a file server. Samba provides the file sharing with several Mac OS X systems. I have set up a Shared Files folder and shared it using Samba. On the Mac, I mount the Shared Files folder and then set up symbolic links to folders within the Shared Files folder. Should I, instead, share folders within the Shared Files folder and mount them instead of using symbolic links?

I think it only depends on you. To mount/share a dir and also mount/share its subdirs is usually not suggested, but there can be cases.... Also symbolic links pointing outside of the share may or may not work. So actually if it works for you just use it.
You should also avoid creating a huge amount of shares/mounts.

The huge amount of shares/mounts is what I was concerned about. I think I will stick with symbolic links. They are working well.

Thanks for your quick reply.