Samba quietly turns 3.0

MOST OPEN SOURCE software projects, unlike the commercial packages, don't jump version numbers very often. You can see "AOL 9.0", "Wordperfect Office 11", yet the Apache web server is "only" at version 2.x, after all these years. So when a major open source projects jumps its version number from 1.x to 2.0, or 2.0 to 3.0, it's actually a big deal.

Less than a week ago, and without much fanfare, the Samba team released version 3.0 of their networking code for Unix, Linux, and other platforms. Source code, as well as RedHat RPMS for 7.3, 8.0, and 9.0 are available from the Samba.org site. Binaries for other platforms will be available soon, according to the site.

For those living in a Windows World, Samba.org is not the "Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia", it's the GNU open source code that works behind the curtains, or should I say under the hood, in almost every Linux distro and Unix out there, and allows these systems to share files with, and connect with other shared dirs over a network with, other Windows-Linux-Unix-OS/2 systems on a LAN/WAN, using the SMB and CIFS protocols.

The Samba Team is comprised of a loose-knit group of programmers from all over the world who contribute regularly to the development of the Samba code. Companies like IBM and SGI are known sponsors of the project, along with many individuals.

So what's new in version 3.0? According to the press release, this version brings "the first Open Source/Free Software implementation of Windows NT Primary and Backup Domain Controller functionality. Customers can transparently migrate their existing Windows NT domains to Samba 3.0 whilst keeping their existing user and group account databases. This enables significant cost of ownership savings over a Windows NT4 domain as a Samba 3.0 Domain Controller does not require client access licenses".

Other important features are Kerberos 5 authentication, along with seamless integration into a Microsoft Active Directory domain in both native and mixed mode, providing single sign-on for UNIX and Linux clients in an Active Directory environment.

The Samba news page includes a comment about SCO, however: " We observe that SCO is both attacking the GPL on the one hand and benefiting from the GPL on the other hand" (SCO announced the incorporation of the Samba3 release into their latest OpenServer product), and continues: "SCO can't have it both ways. SCO has a clear choice: either pledge not to use any Open Source/Free Software in any of their products, or actively participate in the Open Source/Free Software movement and reap the benefits. For SCO to continue to use Open Source/Free Software while attacking others for using it is the epitome of hypocrisy" the page reads.

I guess we will see upcoming Linux distros including Samba 3.0. It can only help speed the migration from Volish OSs to the Gnuish penguin. In the meantime, you can download the RPMs if using RedHat, check for RPMs from your Linux vendor if using other distro, or compile the source yourself. µ