[Samba] Re: LDAP account management tools?

[Craig White]

On Thu, 2005-12-15 at 10:32 -0500, Matt Lung wrote:

> >----
> >There are lots of resources for getting support - this list is user
> >supported for free. Expecting personal attention to one's situation is
> >probably not reasonable. You can always contract for support, setup
> >assistance, etc.
> >
> >Craig
> >
> >  
> >
> Agreed, there are lots of resources for getting help.  Of course 
> expecting personal attention to one's problems is not always going to 
> happen on a free platform.  When I post to this list however I am asking 
> for personal attention every time.  If someone gives that attention back 
> is another thing.  But it is free support so you always must keep that 
> in mind.  Contracting for support for getting say your home network 
> going???  Who is going to want to do that?  Samba is not just used as an 
> Enterprise server application.  I'm just suggesting making it easier to 
> setup and maintain so just keep an open mind. 
----
of course home networking isn't going to involve LDAP (unless you are at
my house) so that isn't an issue and most of the distributions give you
a tool to configure samba for your home network now or you can always
use swat.

This list is simply a users helping users and infrequently, when someone
is fortunate enough to have properly researched their problem and stated
it simply and clearly enough, they will get answers from samba
developers. 

These simple facts remain...
- open source usage requires the implementer to get involved in the
configuation details.

- there aren't always nice, neat gui tools for these configuration
issues...remember, UNIX/Linux is about text based configuration files
and the gui tools tend to make a bludgeon of things that in text
form...can be organized, logical and easy enough to change with a simple
editor.

- samba has the best documentation that I am aware of all open source
projects and because of the detail/scope/breadth, people don't want to
read it and instead, want to use the mail lists instead.

- if we are talking about a business and there's no one on staff capable
of handling the issues involved, businesses pay for support.

Craig