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5 <H2 ALIGN=CENTER>Welcome to the Samba web pages</H2>
7 <P>Samba is an <A HREF="http://www.opensource.org/">Open Source</A>/<A
8 HREF="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html">Free Software</A> suite
9 that provides seamless file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients.
10 Samba is freely available under the <A HREF="docs/GPL.html">GNU General
14 <b>Latest Samba 2.2 release:</b> <a
15 href="/samba/ftp/old-versions/samba-2.2.8a.tar.gz">Samba 2.2.8a (*security release*)</a>
16 <a href="/samba/whatsnew/samba-2.2.8.html">release notes</a>
17 <a href="/samba/ftp/old-versions/samba-2.2.8a.tar.asc">signature</a><br>
19 <b>Latest Samba 3.0 release:</b> <a
20 href="/samba/ftp/samba-3.0.2a.tar.gz">Samba 3.0.2a</a>
21 <a href="/samba/whatsnew/samba-3.0.2a.html">release notes</a>
22 <a href="/samba/ftp/samba-3.0.2a.tar.asc">signature</a>
28 <li>(20th Apr, 2004) <em>Samba 3.0.3RC1 available for download</em>
30 This is a release candidate snapshot of the Samba 3.0.3 code
31 base and should be considered for testing only. A release
32 candidate (RC) means that we are close to the final, stable
33 release and is provided for Quality Assurance (QA) purposes.
34 This release is <b>not</b> intended for production servers. Use
37 However, there have been several bug fixes and new features
38 added since 3.0.2a that we feel it is
39 important to make it available to the Samba community for wider testing.
40 The <a href="/samba/ftp/rc/">source code and GnuPG signatures</a>
41 can be found on Samba mirrors. <a href="http://samba.org/~jerry/RPMS/samba/">RPMS
42 for RedHat 7.3, 8.0, 9.0, and Fedora Core 1</a> are currently available. Packages
43 for other platforms will become available as they are provided by volunteers. The
44 <a href="/samba/ftp/rc/WHATSNEW-3.0.3rc1.txt">full release notes</a> are
45 available online as well.
51 <li>(9th Apr, 2004) <em>The Samba Team announces the Samba-3 by Example Book</em>
53 Tech book publisher Prentice Hall PTR announces that Samba-Team member John H.
54 Terpstra's latest book, <em>Samba-3 By Example: Practical Exercises to Successful Deployment</em>
55 (ISBN 0131472216), is now available at Amazon.com and direct from the publisher at
56 www.informit.com/terpstra and at bookstores nationwide. <em>Samba-3 By Example</em>
57 is the companion follow-up book to <em>The Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide</em>
58 (ISBN 0131453556), which was co-edited by John H. Terpstra and fellow Samba-Team member
61 <em>Samba-3 By Example</em> was written in response to demand for real-world worked
62 examples of Samba-3 configurations. A CD-ROM included within the book contains all
63 examples of configuration files, scripts, and tools covered in the book. This CD-ROM
64 also has the binary and source packages for SuSE and Red Hat Linux products.
66 Prentice Hall PTR is pleased to announce that the full source of both books,
67 <em>The Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide</em> and the new publication
68 <em>Samba-3 by Example</em> have been posted to Samba.Org samba-docs public code tree.
69 All books in the Bruce Perens' Open Source Series are published under the OPL.
71 For more information see: <a href="http://www.informit.com/terpstra">InformIT</a> or
72 <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0131472216/qid%3D1077225188/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-8804968-9612156">Amazon.Com</a>.
73 The PDF and HTML versions of Samba-3 by Example (The Samba Guide) will appear on the
74 Samba web site by April 14th under <a href="http://www.samba.org/samba/docs">the documentation</a>
80 <li>(5th Apr, 2004) <em>Samba 3.0.3pre2 available for download</em>
82 This is the second preview release of the Samba 3.0.3 code base and
83 is provided for testing only. This release is <b>not</b> intended
84 for production servers. However, there have
85 been several bug fixes and new features added since 3.0.2a that we feel it is
86 important to make it available to the Samba community for wider testing.
87 The <a href="/samba/ftp/pre/">source code and GnuPG signatures</a>
88 can be found on Samba mirrors. <a href="http://samba.org/~jerry/RPMS/samba/">RPMS
89 for RedHat 7.3, 8.0, 9.0, and Fedora Core 1</a> will be available within 24 hours. Packages for other
90 platforms will become available as they are provided by volunteers. The
91 <a href="/samba/ftp/pre/WHATSNEW-3.0.3pre2.txt">full release notes</a> are
92 available on-line as well.
98 <li>(19th Mar, 2004) <em>Samba 3 wins Innovation Award by German Magazine</em>
100 The German <a href="http://www.pc-professionell.de/">PC Professionell</a>
101 Magazine has awarded Samba 3 as the <em>Innovation of the years
102 2003/2004</em> in the category <em>Network</em>. Volker Lendecke has
103 accepted the award at the Magazine's CeBIT party.
109 <li>(16th Oct, 2003) <em>Tests by ITWEEK show "Samba 3 runs rings around Windows Server 2003 in file serving performance"</em>
111 Tests by the UK magazine <a href="http://www.itweek.co.uk">ITWEEK</a> show
112 that an untuned Samba3 server outperforms an untuned Windows 2003 server on the
113 same hardware by a factor of <b>2.5 times</b>. The news article is <a href="http://www.itweek.co.uk/News/1144312">here</a>
114 and the test results in graph form are <a href="http://www.itweek.co.uk/ITWeek/itw_graph_1144289.jsp">here.</a>
119 <li>(19th Aug, 2003) <em>SCO use of Samba code under the GPL</em>
121 Over the past few months, the SCO Group (formerly Caldera International, Inc.
122 a Linux distribution vendor) has been complaining about violations of its
123 Copyright works by the Linux kernel code.
125 Recently, Darl McBride, the Chief Executive Officer of SCO has been making
126 pejorative statements regarding the license used by the Linux kernel, the
127 GNU GPL. In a keynote speech he recently said:
130 "At the end of the day, the GPL is not about making software free; it's
131 about destroying value."
134 In light of this, it is the depths of hypocrisy that at the same event
135 SCO also announced the incorporation of the Samba3 release into their
136 latest OpenServer product. Samba is an Open Source/Free Software
137 project that allows Linux and UNIX servers to interoperate with
138 Microsoft Windows clients. The reason for this is clear: Samba3 allows
139 Linux and UNIX servers to replace Microsoft Windows NT Domain
140 Controllers and will add great value to any Operating System which
141 includes it. However, Samba is also developed and distributed under
142 the GNU GPL license, in exactly the same manner as the Linux kernel
143 code that SCO has been criticizing for its lack of care in ownership
146 We observe that SCO is both attacking the GPL on the one hand and
147 benefiting from the GPL on the other hand. SCO can't have it both ways.
148 SCO has a clear choice: either pledge not to use any Open Source/Free
149 Software in any of their products, or actively participate in the Open
150 Source/Free Software movement and reap the benefits. For SCO to continue to
151 use Open Source/Free Software while attacking others for using it is the
152 epitome of hypocrisy.
154 The strength of Open Source/Free Software is that it is available to
155 all without restrictions on fields of endeavor, as the Samba Team
156 believes the ability to freely use, modify and learn from software
157 code is one of the grounding principles of computer science, and a
158 basic freedom for all.
160 Because of this, we believe that the Samba Team must remain true to our
161 principles and our code must be freely available to use even in ways we
162 personally disapprove of.
164 Even when used by rank hypocrites like SCO.
169 Christopher R. Hertel,
171 Jean Francois Micouleau,
183 <a href="whatsnew/">older news</a>
188 <a href="/samba/tshirt.html">Samba T-shirts and mugs</a>
189 <a href="/samba/tshirt.html"><img src="/samba/images/t-small.jpg"
190 alt="" align="MIDDLE" border=0></a>
191 <a href="/samba/tshirt.html">are available!</a>
195 <p align="center"><em>Please use the closest <A HREF="/samba/">mirror
196 site</A> for these web pages. The popularity of Samba puts a strain on
197 our network. By using a mirror site you can do your bit to reduce the
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