[SAMBA 4] How to proceed?

[Matthias Dieter Wallnöfer]

Dear SAMBA community!

I've been a SAMBA 4 tester for a year now. Recently, I've discussed with 
Andrew Bartlett in private about ideas how we could/should continue our 
work towards the next SAMBA 4 releases. We agreed that SAMBA 4 certainly 
will have a future in the "Franky" hybrid framework, but also as a 
standalone software.
Since the software seems to be stable in many areas, it doesn't make 
much sense to leave it in the alpha stage. So I'd like to see the next 
release as a beta.
I also worried with Andrew about how we could change it so, that people 
is willing to use it. I've prepared a list of theses to consider:

    * Standalone server support: There should be implemented a kind of
      NTFS-POSIX ACL mapping to finish this one. But generally, the
      fileserver should be nearly feature-complete now.
    * Replication: According to Andrew ok.
    * Packaging: The effort to prepare packages for diffused
      distributions should continue.
    * Compatibility with OpenChange: Much work has been done.
    * Stable database formats
    * Fix problems with the build system: I've in mind the problem with
      the uninstallation
      (https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5678). Through the
      next versions we may have also a look at
      https://bugzilla.samba.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4081 (Building outside
      source directory).

Smaller issues:

    * LDB async rewrite: Is there a plan to finish it?
    * Registry backend: I've prepared a set of patches to fix the server
      side up. I hope they will be pushed soon.
    * Printer support: For now I wouldn't implement it.

I see this email as an expression of my (and partially Andrew's) 
opinions and as a base to discuss and comment on. Please do so!

Matthias