Version 4 of Samba is a completely new development of the open source CIFS server. Thus, interested users should see Samba 4 as more of a research project from the development team than a new version.
Active Directory for Linux
An important aim of Samba 4 is the implementation of a directory service that is compatible with Active Directory by Microsoft. With Samba 4 it is possible to add your own AD forest or operate an existing AD forest in a mixed Linux/Windows setup.
Modern CIFS servers for Unix
Another aim of Samba 4 is redevelopment of the CIFS server itself. On the basis of Unix a separate process is branched off for each client in Samba 3. In large installations this is at the expense of performance. But since in the past Samba 3 has been able to fully match the performance of Windows, for user and developers this requirement has been subordinate to the issue of the directory systems, especially Active Directory.
samba4AD 2009
Like the samba4WINS project, in the "samba4AD" project it is our aim to design an Active Directory server that can be delivered together with a Samba3-CIFS server. This aim is to be implemented mid-2009 in the first customer installations and will thus be made available to all users.
You'll get to know more about Samba 4 at the next samba eXPerience conference.
