+Samba 4.0 will be the next version of the Samba suite and incorporates
+all the technology found in both the Samba4 series and the
+stable 3.x series. The primary additional features over Samba 3.6 are
+support for the Active Directory logon protocols used by Windows 2000
+and above.
+
+This release contains the best of all of Samba's
+technology parts, both a file server (that you can reasonably expect
+to upgrade existing Samba 3.x releases to) and the AD domain
+controller work previously known as 'samba4'.
+
+If you are upgrading, or looking to develop, test or deploy Samba 4.0
+releases candidates, you should backup all configuration and data.
+
+
+UPGRADING
+=========
+
+Users upgrading from Samba 3.x domain controllers and wanting to use
+Samba 4.0 as an AD DC should use the 'samba-tool domain
+classicupgrade' command. See the wiki for more details:
+https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Samba4/samba3upgrade/HOWTO.
+
+Users upgrading from Samba 4.0 alpha and beta releases since alpha15
+should run 'samba-tool dbcheck --cross-ncs --fix' before re-starting
+Samba. Users upgrading from earlier alpha releases should contact the
+team for advice.
+
+Users upgrading an AD DC from any previous release should run
+'samba-tool ntacl sysvolreset' to re-sync ACLs on the sysvol share
+with those matching the GPOs in LDAP and the defaults from an initial
+provision. This will set an underlying POSIX ACL if required (eg not
+using the NTVFS file server).
+
+If you used the BIND9_FLATFILE or BIND9_DLZ features,
+you'll have to add '-dns' to the 'server services' option,
+as the internal dns server (SAMBA_INTERNAL) is the default now.
+
+
+NEW FEATURES
+============
+
+Samba 4.0 supports the server-side of the Active Directory logon
+environment used by Windows 2000 and later, so we can do full domain
+join and domain logon operations with these clients.
+
+Our Domain Controller (DC) implementation includes our own built-in
+LDAP server and Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) as well as the
+Samba3-like logon services provided over CIFS. We correctly generate
+the infamous Kerberos PAC, and include it with the Kerberos tickets we
+issue.
+
+Samba 4.0.0rc2 ships with two distinct file servers. We now use the
+file server from the Samba 3.x series 'smbd' for all file serving by
+default.
+
+Samba 4.0 also ships with the 'NTVFS' file server. This file server
+is what was used in all previous releases of Samba 4.0, and is
+tuned to match the requirements of an AD domain controller. We
+continue to support this, not only to provide continuity to
+installations that have deployed it as part of an AD DC, but also as a
+running example of the NT-FSA architecture we expect to move smbd to in
+the longer term.
+
+For pure file server work, the binaries users would expect from that
+series (nmbd, winbindd, smbpasswd) continue to be available. When
+running an AD DC, you only need to run 'samba' (not
+nmbd/smbd/winbind), as the required services are co-coordinated by this
+master binary.
+
+As DNS is an integral part of Active Directory, we also provide two DNS
+solutions, a simple internal DNS server for 'out of the box' configurations
+and a more elaborate BIND plugin using the BIND DLZ mechanism in versions
+9.8 and 9.9. During the provision, you can select which backend to use.
+With the internal backend, your DNS server is good to go.
+If you chose the BIND_DLZ backend, a configuration file will be generated
+for bind to make it use this plugin, as well as a file explaining how to
+set up bind.
+
+To provide accurate timestamps to Windows clients, we integrate with
+the NTP project to provide secured NTP replies. To use you need to
+start ntpd and configure it with the 'restrict ... ms-sntp' and
+ntpsigndsocket options.
+
+Finally, a new scripting interface has been added to Samba 4, allowing
+Python programs to interface to Samba's internals, and many tools and
+internal workings of the DC code is now implemented in python.