[Samba] Accessing Samba Shares from Windows

[Bernard Peek]

In message <E1GxPtg-00065s-00 at intern.SerNet.DE>, Volker Lendecke 
<Volker.Lendecke at SerNet.DE> writes
>On Thu, Dec 21, 2006 at 02:41:00PM +0000, Bernard Peek wrote:
>> I wouldn't call it irresponsible or stupid. If samba.org are willing to
>> provide free on-site software support then I'm sure that the OP could
>> persuade his employer to change the policy. If I was responsible for a
>> company network, and didn't have any Linux support resources, I would
>> block anyone from connecting any Linux boxes to my network whether using
>> Samba or not. There are situations where there might be a legal
>> requirement to do just that.
>
>There are *TONS* of options for professional Linux support.
>For specific Samba support look at www.samba.org, you will
>find the link to the commercial support pages.

Yes, I know it's available. But you need to pay for it. If you have 
in-house support for Windows systems then you don't have to pay any 
extra. If I was starting a new business today I could use Linux for 
everything and not have to hire any Windows support people. But if I 
then had to use one Windows application I would have to buy in support 
for it, either by recruiting a new support person with Windows 
experience or by paying for a support contract. In that situation I 
might stop anyone connecting a Windows machine to my network, until I 
had arranged support somehow.

Linux is probably cheaper to support than Windows, particularly when you 
have many machines. But supporting Linux and Windows is more expensive 
than supporting either Windows or Linux alone. Small businesses can 
afford one or the other, not both.



-- 
Bernard Peek
bap at shrdlu.com