John Terpstra

It's over. Finally, sigh, Samba-3.0.0 has been released. How does it feel for those who worked for so long to make this happen? We are all relieved. And now that we are over the short-lived euphoria, it's back to work we go! I was recently asked, "How does it all work?" The inquirer was wondering how the development of Samba works within the Samba-Team. The danger of answering the question is in failing to mention the important people. The important people are our users. They are the ones who seed us with ideas - they dutifully contribute patches, and some actually get deeply involved to help make certain that the changes they need, and help with, work. Without such valuable worker bees Samba could not be the dynamic product it is. There are usually two Samba code trees: the HEAD branch and a release branch. The Samba-Team works in split mode; Jerry Carter is the relea... (more)

Samba Update

It's fascinating that so much has happened since the last Samba Update. To those of us close to the action it seems that development just continues at a steady pace. This edition of the Samba Update update reports on the roadmap for Samba-3, the decisions made at the SambaXP Conference, and the exciting new documentation for Samba-3. Roadmap and SambaXP Conference UpdateThe latest patch release of the 3.0 code base, Samba 3.0.4, is available for download from www.samba.org. This is the latest stable release of Samba. This is good news, as it paves the way for the next feature upd... (more)

What Does 2004 Hold in Store for Linux?

Here is the set of questions we sent out to a number of the many Linux luminaries that we know and admire. Following the questions are the responses we received from Eric Raymond and John Terpstra (of the Samba team). The questions: Which Linux application area do you believe will grow the fastest in 2004? Will 2004 *finally* be the year when Linux makes significant in-roads on the desktop? Which distributions will show the greatest growth in 2004? What major Linux IPO or Linux acquisition will occur in 2004? What will be the coolest new Linux application in 2004? Will the SCO deba... (more)

Samba-3 Update

By the time you receive this update Samba-3 will be four months old. Amazingly, the first update took three months. Samba-3.0.1 shipped December 19, and Samba-3.0.2 shipped in February. How many bugs were squashed in 3.0.1? There were approximately 160 CVS updates that fixed a range of nuisance issues. The most serious issues addressed since 3.0.0 in 3.0.1 are: Improved interoperability with Microsoft Office applications SWAT fixes Signing fixes Internationalization support fixes Fixes for some segfault/crash bugs Improvements to Kerberos support Winbind maturation changes Impro... (more)

What's New in Samba-3

Welcome to John Terpstra's Samba Column, where you'll find the latest news on Samba. Over the next six months, John will provide a running update based on field experience and feedback, with full updates on new features and deployment options as well as hot tips for your enjoyment. Samba-3.0.0 has finally emerged from its cage. This is news to some, while others have responded with a sigh. Open source software follows a convoluted development path – code is ready when the developers reach agreement that it's time to ship. Samba-3 has been in the works for a long time. The real r... (more)