LINUX DOES A NEW DANCE (fwd)

[Frederick Noronha <fred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to George Lessard <GLessard@xxxxxxxxx> for this forward...
---------- Forwarded message ----------

LINUX DOES A NEW DANCE
Samba, the cost effective software that lets Linux 
imitate Windows, gets a major upgrade. Will the 
competition make Microsoft trip over its own feet? 
http://www.backwire.com/go.asp?cid=51816&nhid=3030&uid=7487028&bx=n2

New Samba improves Windows mimicry 
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com 
April 19, 2001, 12:45 p.m. PT 

Programmers have released a major update to Samba, http://www.samba.org/
software that lets Linux computers mimic Windows machines, encroaching
further onto Microsoft's turf.

Samba lets a computer share files or manage print jobs like a Windows file
server or print server. Like the Linux operating system on which it often
runs, Samba is open-source software collaboratively developed by many
people. 

The new version 2.2 of Samba brings the software up to speed with Windows
2000 changes and adds several other improvements. Jeremy Allison, one of the
lead Samba programmers, calls it a "major update" that will help Samba
systems slip more smoothly into Microsoft networks. 

The software offers cost savings not only because customers don't have to
pay for the server operating system, but also because they don't have to pay
"client" license fees for all the computers that use the server. 

And Microsoft appears to be feeling the pressure. The company has been
aggressively pushing a version of Windows 2000 that computer makers may
customize for jobs such as file and print servers, luring big names such as
Dell Computer, Compaq Computer and Maxtor to ship these "Windows-powered"
products.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/serverappliance/ 

One major change for Microsoft--indeed, a first, according to Maxtor--was
the elimination of client access fees for a Windows special-purpose file
server. That change means that as with Samba systems, any number of
computers may use files on the server without paying Microsoft. 

"Microsoft is certainly coming to understand that if they're going to
provide software for the world of server appliances...it has to be
competitive with other appliance environments," said IDC analyst Dan
Kusnetzky. 

License fees are a major pain for corporations, Kusnetzky said. In addition
to paying the fees, companies must pay administrators to make sure all
needed licenses are obtained and that auditors are satisfied that no one is
shirking requirements. 

"People believe Microsoft's method of licensing...is very complex,"
Kusnetzky said. 

A Microsoft spokesman acknowledged that Samba provides pricing advantages
over the company's software but dismissed Samba as inadequate overall. 

"Even though Samba aims to lower users' costs, it lacks the integration and
management features that help customers lower total cost of ownership," said
Steven Adler, a product manager for Microsoft.Net server marketing.
Microsoft client access license fees are "negligible" compared with the
overall cost of installing and managing computing equipment, he argued, and
large customers get high-volume licensing deals, "negating" any of Samba's
cost savings. 

Adler said Samba has inferior support for Microsoft authentication and file
system standards and doesn't support encrypted file systems at all. 

While Microsoft has lured several companies to its operating system for
special-purpose file and print server "appliances," Samba also has
commercial appeal. Hewlett-Packard is using Samba for a print server
appliance. 

New Samba steps
One major change to Samba 2.2 is the ability to slip into a Windows 2000
network easily without having to be specially configured, a feature called
"single sign-on," Allison said. 

Another change lets Samba servers automatically send computers the software
needed to use a particular printer. HP personnel helped get this feature
working, and HP's John Reilly has been named one of about 10 Samba
programmers authorized to make changes to the software, Allison said. 

Samba 2.2 also can act as an "authentication source" for Windows 2000
computers, meaning Windows 2000 machines can be fooled into thinking the
server is a Windows server. 

Writing this authentication feature was a "nightmare" requiring months of
work, Allison said. "The main problem is getting something that works
without crashing the (Windows) NT/2000 client." Luke Leighton and others
working on an alternate version of Samba http://www.samba.org/ called Samba
TNG http://www.samba-tng.org/ discovered the protocol Microsoft uses for the
task, Allison said. 

The new version also works within Microsoft's structure for setting rules on
which computers get access to which files on a server. 

Samba ships as part of products from IBM, SGI, VA Linux Systems, Red Hat,
Caldera Systems, Procom, Veritas, Sun Microsystems, and others.