[Samba] what OS do you use for Samba?

[Chris Smith]

On Tuesday 21 November 2006 13:49, James A. Dinkel wrote:
> I like that there is a deb repo for Debian from samba.org, but
> I'm more comfortable with CentOS (Redhat).  I just want to be sure I
> have a well supported Samba server and I need at least the 3.0.20
> version so I can use the "inherit owner" property.  I also want
> automatic updates for bugfixes and security (not to concerned about new
> features though).  Any insight?

I use Gentoo Linux for the flexibility.
Which OS is probably less important than the level that you learn to work with 
it. When you are very comfortable with an OS a level of freedom exists beyond 
what the packagers may provide.
Notice that many times there's a big difference in what a distro labels 
as "stable" and what the app developers labels as "stable". A new Samba is 
released with this phrase: "This is the latest stable release of Samba. This 
is the version that production Samba servers should be running for all 
current bug-fixes." Distros that don't update key packages until the next 
release may put some functionality in jeopardy. Since Samba is, at times, 
chasing Microsoft updates (which tend to break things) it's fairly imperitive 
to remain current if it's a critical package for you; such as when it is the 
PDC for your entire network.
The most critical packages for my customers are Samba and Cups, and since the 
client systems all run Windows I find it important to keep up to date with 
these packages in order to provide them with the fewest problems and the most 
features, creating a seamless environment where everything just works and 
they're not presented with problems that call attention to the fact that 
their server is not running Windows.
Since I'm comfortable with the Gentoo packaging system I'm not tied down, in 
most cases, to the release timing from the Gentoo devs; I can create my own 
ebuild and install the latest release (plus patches when necessary) when it 
becomes available. The nice thing here is that I get both customization and 
use of the distros packaging system, as opposed to compiling and installing 
outside of the packaging system which I've found in the past to be generally 
less than desirable. As an example, due to the temporary hiatus of the 
Gentoo's Samba dev the "official" ebuild is a bit out of date, but that 
doesn't prevent me from running the latest release. Plus the ebuild is really 
available to all as it's posted on a bug report.
If I decided to change to a binary distro at this point I would most surely 
learn how to build packages for it in order to not be tied down to the 
distros package release timetable.
If you just want easy pre-built binary installs than pick a distro that 
releases your needed critical packages on a timely basis, or one in which the 
application devs release binaries for. For Samba I think Redhat/Fedora is 
probably the choice as the Samba team seems to always make those available 
close to the same time as source. Although the Debian and Ubuntu Samba 
releases are currently timely it hasn't always been that way.

Chris