On Tuesday 21 November 2006 13:49, James A. Dinkel wrote: > I like that there is a deb repo for Debian from samba.org, but > I'm more comfortable with CentOS (Redhat). I just want to be sure I > have a well supported Samba server and I need at least the 3.0.20 > version so I can use the "inherit owner" property. I also want > automatic updates for bugfixes and security (not to concerned about new > features though). Any insight?
I use Gentoo Linux for the flexibility. Which OS is probably less important than the level that you learn to work with it. When you are very comfortable with an OS a level of freedom exists beyond what the packagers may provide. Notice that many times there's a big difference in what a distro labels as "stable" and what the app developers labels as "stable". A new Samba is released with this phrase: "This is the latest stable release of Samba. This is the version that production Samba servers should be running for all current bug-fixes." Distros that don't update key packages until the next release may put some functionality in jeopardy. Since Samba is, at times, chasing Microsoft updates (which tend to break things) it's fairly imperitive to remain current if it's a critical package for you; such as when it is the PDC for your entire network. The most critical packages for my customers are Samba and Cups, and since the client systems all run Windows I find it important to keep up to date with these packages in order to provide them with the fewest problems and the most features, creating a seamless environment where everything just works and they're not presented with problems that call attention to the fact that their server is not running Windows. Since I'm comfortable with the Gentoo packaging system I'm not tied down, in most cases, to the release timing from the Gentoo devs; I can create my own ebuild and install the latest release (plus patches when necessary) when it becomes available. The nice thing here is that I get both customization and use of the distros packaging system, as opposed to compiling and installing outside of the packaging system which I've found in the past to be generally less than desirable. As an example, due to the temporary hiatus of the Gentoo's Samba dev the "official" ebuild is a bit out of date, but that doesn't prevent me from running the latest release. Plus the ebuild is really available to all as it's posted on a bug report. If I decided to change to a binary distro at this point I would most surely learn how to build packages for it in order to not be tied down to the distros package release timetable. If you just want easy pre-built binary installs than pick a distro that releases your needed critical packages on a timely basis, or one in which the application devs release binaries for. For Samba I think Redhat/Fedora is probably the choice as the Samba team seems to always make those available close to the same time as source. Although the Debian and Ubuntu Samba releases are currently timely it hasn't always been that way. Chris -- To unsubscribe from this list go to the following URL and read the instructions: https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/samba
