Recently, corporations have been waking up to a revolution in their back pockets. Linux has been quietly invading many corporate networks and setting up residence there. Often, it will have been in operation for some time before most people even realize it’s there. And then they’ll discover it, performing some mission, some critical application, and doing the job better than the alternatives. Linux has been put to work providing services to corporations worldwide, acting as firewalls, routers, file servers, and print servers, and performing its duties reliably and inexpensively, with a minimum investment in hardware. The key to this success has been stealth. It does the job and does it well, without drawing attention to itself.
There is an old adage that goes something like: “Do a job well and nobody will know you are there. Do a job poorly and everybody will know your name”.
For Linux to infiltrate workplace environments and provide services to users running Windows, it has to provide Windows-like services — transparently integrated with the Windows network. It must also have the ability to make use of the services available in the Windows networking environment. The Samba software suite provides all of this, performing its functions well enough and inconspicuously enough that it rarely gets…
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