John Terpstra had done a great job showing how SAMBA can be used in real world scenarios. The scenarios are representative of both the environments and customer needs that I have had to address as a consultant. More importantly, it was great to read a book from the Open Source community that was not a diatribe against Microsoft, but rather focused on how one gets Windows and UNIX/Linux working seamlessly in a heterogeneous environment.
The open and honest discussion around interoperability with Windows versus replacing Windows is quite informative. The book did not contain hyperbolic discussions around the technical or ethical benefits of Open Source. This is a book that I would recommend to friends from either the Windows world or FLOSS space (Free/Libre/Open Source Software).
Chapter 10, "Active Directory, Kerberos, and Security," was especially helpful and informative. I particularly appreciated the examples showing both the UNIX and Windows approaches to various problems. The thorough drilldown on the technical underpinnings and explanation of the historical issues gives a good perspective. This chapter helped me understand SAMBA coexistence/interoperability in Active Directory based environments. Having details on security, performance, locking, and the real world conundrums that arise made it possible to translate the books scenarios to my specific needs.
The book is easy to read and clearly details the steps required when setting up your SAMBA environment. The book includes some great references, and lots of accurate, step by step guidance. Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone trying to set up and use SAMBA.
