Question on Linux as a fileserver/print server

[Scott Russell]

On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 02:41:13PM -0500, Gantt Edmiston wrote:
> Questions: Is Linux a viable replacement solution for the current
> Novell solution, assuming that we assume a lot of the answers
> that I didn't know to ask?

Yes. (big assumption of course, but I like to be positive)

> I told him that SAMBA most likely would work for his file serving
> needs, although I've never set that up myself.  And that I wasn't
> sure about the print serving aspects for Linux.

SAMBA will do this well. It doesn't sound like they were using PDC or
directory services, just basic file sharing. This is a no-brainer for samba.

You can also configure the printers to be shared as if they were a windows
print server. I'm not sure how they were doing printer sharing now though.
Is it lpd stuff or windows printer shares?

Samba will also do more advanced stuff of course, including home
directories, PDC, WINS server, etc. 

To give you an idea of my perspective, I would say I'm a basic samba user
which means I can confidently setup basic file and print sharing between
Linux, Mac OSX and mixed Windows platforms. 

Biggest issue I can think of is samba has hundreds of possible config
options. This is good, it allows for extreme flexibility. It can also be a
real pain to figure out what's going on if you don't know the SMB protocol
well. The SWAT config interface goes a long way to solving that issue.

-- 
  Scott 
  Do not trifle with me, I have eaten 104 brains.