Linux – Why do Linux networks use Samba

linuxnetwork-sharesamba

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?"

Best Answer

Is Microsoft's network filesystem so good?

From the perspective that it is everywhere, then yes it is good. If you are asking if it is a good protocol, then the answer is that it isn't really all that great. It has large problems on links with high latency. It has far too many redundant commands. Microsoft has fixed a lot of this with SMB2.

Linux systems defaulting to this Microsoft technology?

There are lots of users who require that their Linux boxes be able to participate in a heterogeneous network. SMB is the lowest common denominator that seems to be supported on all common operating systems.

What would be a Linux-native way to share files and printers

NFS is probably the most standard *nix file sharing protocol.

LPR or CUPS is the most common Printing protocol.

Personally I strongly wish that webdav would become more common for file sharing. But I have yet to find a really good webdav daemon for *nix.

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