[Samba] Some questions about Samba as a DC.

[Jeremy Allison]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 11:00:44PM +1200, Andrew Bartlett via samba wrote:
>On Tue, 2021-04-27 at 11:51 +0100, Rowland penny via samba wrote:
>> On 27/04/2021 11:30, Jason Long wrote:
>> > Why someone choice SAMBA+ over Samba?
>>
>> This is a personal choice, you can use the Samba packages provided
>> by
>> your distro (which could be outdated), or you compile Samba yourself,
>> or
>> you find another repo to use. The Sernet repo supplies packages for
>> various distro's, but at a cost, it is up to the individual to decide
>> if
>> they wish to pay for them.
>
>The big value comes in the timeliness of security updates.  Packaging
>Samba is a challenge at the best of times, but under the pump of a
>security update SerNet has always had their packages out on time.
>
>Sadly a number of other distributions find this much more difficult to
>achieve, particularly those like Debian that lock to old versions and
>so have to do backports.
>
>I see timely security patches as one of the bigger parts of what you
>pay for, not Samba - this is and remains free software, you are welcome
>to ask SerNet for the sources etc, but knowing that when the proverbial
>hits the fan, that you can patch your production systems quickly.
>
>Also, as ever, funding Samba vendors (like my employer Catalyst, and
>SerNet for Samba+) funds Samba.

Yep, I have to add a BIG +1 to this !

If you are able to pay for Samba support, please *DO* pay for
Samba support.

Almost all of the work that is done to improve and maintain
Samba comes from engineers paid by support and maintanence
contracts.

We all want Samba to remain maintained, secure and with a
healthy ecosystem for many years to come.

Even if you aren't able to buy support, please support us
by registering and attending SambaXP, the worldwide Samba
conference which will be virtual (again) this year, next
week. See:

https://sambaxp.org

for details.

Cheers,

Jeremy.