I’ve just read two articles over at ZDNet about the Samba 4.0 release:
Samba 4 released, brings Free alternative to Active Directory
Samba 4 is now slated for release on November 27
…and my reaction was literally: So what?
Samba has been around for years and they’ve been integrating with Windows from the beginning. So now they’ve just announced that they’ve landed on the moon but of our eyes are pretty much focused on Mars at the moment. It’s truly an amazing engineering feat ladies and gentlemen.
What do I mean? Well, having an Active Directory, plug compatible, non-Windows server might have been interesting 5-7 years ago but today it’s not. I’m not sure if anyone’s heard but many companies are extending to the cloud and that includes to Office 365. The reliance and need for Samba’s 4 “free alternative to Active Directory” is way too late to the party.
And, while I am on free I can just imagine the laughter coming from Microsoft’s support centers when some customer calls in with a problem they have with Samba 4’s Active Directory behavior. You get what you pay for ladies and gentlemen.
Oh, a small business might be interested in it? You’re kidding, right? A small business would be far more interested in using Office 365 or using Google than having the expertise to stand up a Samba 4 server.
Who cares?
