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Impossible in this case. It's being developed by the same guys as the Linux client, and Microsoft has no say whatsoever other than giving them money.

true, this is just a good thing all around

Sometimes money can turn into having a say. And I don't put anything past MS anymore, they can be very patient when they want to be. Still, they haven't had enough guts to violate a true open source license as of yet, so perhaps it won't happen here.

paranoid much? People bring this up /every/ time MS and some protocol or format is mentioned in the same line.

If it's feathered, got webbed feet and quacks, it must be
a pig, right?

With their track record, their reputation is well deserved. If they want to be seen as nice guys,
they'll have to earn it.
But don't give me any horse-hockey about giving
them the benefit of the doubt.
They've done plenty to be given only the doubt.

This'll get you started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish
and there are lots of links to follow, if you're so
inclined

Because they basically have nothing else to argue, or have an valid point to make.

Why not just open up the Active Directory specifications so that SMB can be replaced with NFSv4 and use Active Directory behind the scenes.

Providing compatibility with Microsoft isn't the way - what needs to occur is for SMB to be replaced with a vendor independent protocol that transcends all the operating systems.

iFolder is a prime example of something I would love to see replace SMB and CUPS become the defacto-standard printing protocol of not only the UNIX world but the operating system world over all.

Edited 2009-04-24 07:28 UTC

I admit I've never used iFolder, but after about ten years of experience using SMB in Windows and NFS (v2,3) in Linux I'll take SMB hands down over NFS, particularly when it comes to reliability, performance, and overall ease of administration. YMMV.

I've used iFolder on a Mac server - lets put it this way, it mops the floor with both afp and smb when it comes to speed and reliability. Sure it uses Mono but it is a small price to pay for sanity in a multiplatform world.

Your soul for sanity. An interesting choice.

And opposite mine.

Ohh.. wait. That came out wrong :p

Your soul for sanity. An interesting choice. "
Roy... is that you?

Are you talking about the Novell iFolder that came with NetWare 6? Or some Apple iFolder thing?

The Novell iFolder was nice. You could access your folders on a NetWare server via Windows Explorer without having any Novell software installed on your station. Just point it to the Novell server, put in your Novell username and password in the dialog that pops up, and voila!

No idea what the underlying protocols were, as I never personally used it, but our Novell techs really liked it, and tried to use that as a push to keep NetWare, but we were in the middle of our migration to Linux+Samba for file/print servers. iFolder just wasn't enough to justify over $40,000 CDN a year for licensing.

iFolder from Novell which is now an open source and free to use for anyone:

http://www.ifolder.com/

I don't know what you're paying CND$40,000 for unless you see that you require amount of support etc. IFolder was opensourced around 2-3 years ago and has been an open source project under the guidance of Novell since then.

They only released source before, there was no outside colaboration, so there was no intend by people to actually create packages for Debian/Ubuntu, etc. because of that. Only since April Fools day there is a sourceforce project with the newer iFolder 3.x which looks like a real open source project. So people are starting to create packages, etc. and my guess next Ubuntu release will have packages for atleast the client.

iFolder from Novell which is now an open source and free to use for anyone:

http://www.ifolder.com/

I don't know what you're paying CND$40,000 for unless you see that you require amount of support etc. IFolder was opensourced around 2-3 years ago and has been an open source project under the guidance of Novell since then. "

Ah, cool, didn't know they open-sourced it. The last time we paid for Novell Netware licensing (3-ish years ago) it was $40,000 CDN for the district, for less than 10 servers. That was the final nail in Novell's coffin in the district ... we uninstalled everything with Novell in the name.

CUPS isn't a protocol, but it is an implementation of the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP), which is defined in RFC 2910 & 2911. Windows Vista onward support it, and Windows XP sort-of supports it (You can configure a Postscript printer that's connected to an HTTP printer)

Edited 2009-04-26 10:10 UTC

Cool, thanks for the heads up - so basically the issue is addressed with Windows Vista and onwards so what is needed is a drop in replacement for SMB - iFolder and NFS are both viable solutions