[Samba] Is Samba for me? (win2k sp4 pdc -> samba)

[N.J. Thomas]

I have a Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 PDC (AD backend) that I'd like to
replace with Samba.

The docs on samba.org are a bit confusing though, here is an excerpt
from Chapter 4, "Domain Controller Types":

    Samba-3 servers can readily be converted to and from domain
    controller roles through simple changes to the smb.conf file.
    Samba-3 is capable of acting fully as a native member of a Windows
    200x server Active Directory domain.

But a bit later it says:

    At this time any appearance that Samba-3 is capable of acting as a
    domain controller in native ADS mode is limited and experimental in
    nature. This functionality should not be used until the Samba Team
    offers formal support for it.

I'm not sure what is meant by "native" ADS mode. Is that some esoteric
and rarely used feature?

FWIW, we are not doing anything fancy with the Microsoft Windows 2000
PDC currently, just using it to authenticate logins. Can I do what I
want with Samba-3?

thanks,
Thomas

-- 
N.J. Thomas
njt at ayvali.org
Etiamsi occiderit me, in ipso sperabo