[Bug 137656] Re: Samba Backport Urgently Needed

[jshanks]

I'm not sure that the Samba Team is really the right place to lay blame
for the lack of a stable Linux/Samba server.  They are coders.  Samba is
not an application like OpenOffice.org, or Totem.  Samba is a very
complicated CIFS server with most of the bells and whistles.  And they
really don't have much control over how it's implemented in any
particular *nix.  There are just too many variable for them to expect
them to do a feature freeze.

Like any part of Linux that's not an application (i.e. Xorg, Gnome,
OpenLDAP, PAM etc.)  the decisions of how it works really needs to be
done in the distribution.  Where decisions of how to implement Samba
along with the related packages can be made "for" the end user in a
"sane" default configuration.  Like I said before, the auto-
configuration in almost all distributions provides the functionality of
Windows 95 file sharing.  That's perfectly fine for a desktop operating
system or occasionally copying a file to a Windows client, but it's
vastly inadequate for a domain controller/file server/print server with
database sharing, file locking, full security, group rights, individual
rights, etc.

All of these things can be done, all of the tools are there, I have it
working.  Problem is, it takes years of experience to make it relatively
easy.

Here again, I think there should be a distribution designed primarily as a simple Domain Controller/File/Print Server.  It should be a drop in replacement for Windows NT (Not 2003).  Active Directory is serious overkill for most small businesses.  Not to mention a general pain.  Actually you can freeze any version of Samba you want.  Anything over 3.0.14 will do what you need it to do as long as:
(1)  The security patches are backported
(2)  The bugfix patches are at least considered for backporting if they apply to the default "sane" configuration.

Any new functionality should be added only in the event that there is no
other option to fix a major bug.  (Vista)  :)

Is anyone else interested in this?  I'm not a coder (used to be, but got
out of it a looong time ago)  but I have had success in making it work,
and would be interested in sharing experiences, scripts, config files
and any other info as well as documentation.

I would also like to note that Ubuntu Desktop is the best *NIX that I've
used to connect to a Linux/Samba server.  I works great.  A file server
distribution would be a fantastic addition to the Ubuntu experience and
once again like the easy-to-use desktop, Ubuntu can be first.

-- 
Samba Backport Urgently Needed
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/137656
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