Why do Linux networks use Samba?

Posted by Dougal on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Dougal
Published on 2010-04-01T15:50:45Z Indexed on 2010/04/01 15:53 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 401

Filed under:

linux

|

samba

|

operating-system

|

network-share

The "file and printer sharing" feature of Linux distros is mostly Samba. Samba is an interpretation of Microsoft's network filesystem.

Cross-OS compatibility is important of course but why are Linux systems defaulting to this Microsoft technology?

Is Microsoft's network filesystem so good? Samba clearly works very well and I'm not "dissing" it.

Or, to rephrase the question, "What would be a Linux-native way to share files and printers across a network?"

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about linux

apt-get install and update fail

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've got a problem with apt-get update and apt-get install ... commands . every time update or installing fails and errors are : Get:1 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [198B] Ign http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl… >>> More
kernel module compiling error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
sh@ubuntu:/home/ccpp/helloworld$ make gcc-4.6 -O2 -DMODULE -D_KERNEL_ -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -c -o hello-1.o hello-1.c hello-1.c:4:0: warning: "MODULE" redefined [enabled by default] <command-line>:0:0: note: this is… >>> More
Build-Essentials installation failing

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having trouble accessing the several critical header files that show to be a part of the build process. The "Ubuntu Software Center" shows "Build Essentials" as installed: Next I did the following two commands, which did not improve the problem: ~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential [sudo]… >>> More
Updating Debian kernel

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm trying to update my Debian machine to 2.6.32-46 (which is the new stable). However, after doing apt-get update my apt-cache search linux-image shows me: linux-headers-2.6.32-5-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-486 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem linux-headers-2… >>> More
Serial connection over a single USB cable (Windows to linux, or linux to linux)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm helping out with a project for an embedded device that only has USB and no serial. This device is running Linux. These days, when we need to connect to a serial port on a device we typically use a USB to serial adapter (on something like a phone system or a load balancing device, etc). I would… >>> More

Related posts about samba

Unable to connect to Samba printer

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have a headless Ubuntu 12.04 server for files and printers. It shares files via Samba just fine. However, the HP PSC-750xi connected to the server via USB is not accessible from my Ubuntu 12.04 laptop. I can browse for it in the Printing control panel, but any attempt to authenticate my ID to the… >>> More
Samba folder is gone

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I seem to have some issues sharing folders from my Ubuntu 12.04 machine to a Win7 machine. After playing around with the settings, I decided to revert to Samba's original setting by reinstalling it: sudo apt-get purge samba sudo rm -rf /etc/samba/ /etc/default/samba sudo apt-get install samba just… >>> More
Samba on OS X 10.6.4

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I just updated from 10.6.3 to 10.6.4, and now my Samba shares won't mount and won't allow access into the directories. In the logs, I've started to get the following errors, any idea what might have gone wrong? 2010/06/25 15:54:27, 0, pid=13848] /SourceCache/samba/samba-235.4/samba/source/passdb/secrets… >>> More
OpenLDAP and Samba, can't log onto Samba share from Windows

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
The former jackass IT-guy that I'm taking over for had a Samba share setup on a Fedora server that uses our OpenLDAP server to authenticate users who want to log in from Windows. We recently added a new employee and I jumped through the LDAP hoops to add them to the system. However, I can't seem… >>> More
Windows 7 Samba issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
We have a strange samba issue affecting only one user. Our samba setup is as follow : Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.4 (Tikanga) - Samba Server Samba version 3.0.33-3.14.el5 - Samba version Domain Controller WIN2008R2 Standard -… >>> More