Samba 2.0.x review published at PC Week.

Rich_Jones at wmg.com Rich_Jones at wmg.com
Wed Mar 17 13:39:30 GMT 1999


Hi,

	Its sad to see the rags still touting "If it ain't Microsoft,  it 
ain't good."

	ZDNet is a prime example.  After a year of spewing garbage about Linux,
 and how a Microsoft world would be better, they too are starting to see 
that spewing FUD for MS has damaged their rep (what little they had) among 
the upper echelon of techdom.  Turn your back to *true* innovation, thats 
the real crime.  These mags don't realize, the more they spread the FUD, 
the more they expose themselves as not a true consumer magazine.  

	When I first worked with Samba, I found it very overwhelming... but 
then all I had to do was read.  The Samba book was an excellent idea, and 
helped grasp the complex concepts.  Now, I love using Samba.  I think it is 
one of my most loved apps. :)  It is SO flexible, and solid.  

	I've been running Samba for NFS and CD-ROM shares for nearly 6 months 
at work.  There are plans to add more servers with similar functionality.  
The little P166/32 sits there chugging away with a decent flow of hits from 
the users, none of which had brought it to its knees.  

	I find Samba coming in to releive spots where NT just up and dies 
(file/print/apps).  In other words, the only thing that the NT can do is 
Mail (Exchange ugh) and Login.  How would that work if you ran a Samba PDC 
for login, and needed to use Exchange?  My feelings is to standardize with 
the rest of the world, and use sendmail (IBM's secured sendmail prolly) and 
Innosoft's LDAP for directory services.

	
Regards,

Richard Jones

ps- These opinions are my own, not my employers.
-------------
Original Text
From: "Dave Walton" <walton at emusic.com>, on 03/16/99 6:35 PM:
On 17 Mar 99, at 7:25, Anthony David wrote:

> From: Ben Kosse <BKosse at thecreek.com>
> > 
> > I don't get it. They give it a con because of:
> > "Tricky to configure; expensive maintenance."
> > 
> > But in the article:
> > "Although Samba is free, SGI charges $1,500 for a maintenance contract 
that
> > ensures enterprise-level support for any SGI-Samba installation. *This 
is a
> > low price when compared with NetWare and NT,*" (Emph mine).
> > 
> > What gives?
> 
> Services is where the Free Software Model is supposed to be compatible
> with commercial enterprises. There is no limit to how much you can
> spend on Free Software. SGI are not selling a license to Samba, they
> are selling a support contract.

I think Ben's question is:  Why do they give it low marks for 
"expensive maintenance" when they go on to say "This is a low 
price when compared with NetWare and NT"?  Is it expensive or 
low-priced?

Dave



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Dave Walton                                                           
Webmaster, Postmaster                                           Emusic
walton at emusic.com                                http://www.emusic.com
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