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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 59 declined, 21 accepted (80 total, 26.25% accepted)

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Submission + - Is NFSv4 dead ? Samba at the SDC conference (samba.org)

Submitted by
Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: "Chris Hertel just wrote up a new Samba Team blog
entry about the SNIA SDC conference here:

http://samba.org/samba/news/developers/2011-snia-sdc-report.html

It's a great read for people who weren't able to make it ! NetApp and EMC on stage for Microsoft's SMB2 launch. What future for NFSv4 ?

Jeremy."
Linux

Submission + - Video interview with Jim Zemlin, Linux Foundation (blogspot.com)

Submitted by
Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: "Here is a video interview I did with Jim Zemlin, head of the Linux Foundation and Linus Torvalds boss (in theory). Jim articulates his vision of "Linux everywhere", which is really compelling as a mission statement.

Half hour interview (sorry about the background noise, we really need to use a proper studio for this, not just sit outside Chris DiBona's office :-).

Jeremy."
GNOME

Submission + - Video Interviews from GUADEC (blogspot.com)

Submitted by Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: Whilst at GUADEC (the GNOME conference) I did a series of video interviews with participants. Several have now been published here:

Introduction and interview with Bradley Kuhn of the Free Software Foundation and Free Software Conservancy:
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/08/interviews-guadec-part-1.html

Marina Zhurakhinskaya, GNOME Shell developer and Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat, an organizer of the GNOME Outreach Program for Women:
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/08/interviews-from-guadec-part-2.html

Lennart Poettering, creator of PulseAudio:
http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2010/09/interviews-from-guadec-part-3.html

With more to come. Stay tuned ! :-).

Jeremy Allison.
Google Open Source Programs Office.
Networking

Submission + - Samba Team releases Samba 3.2 (samba.org)

Submitted by
Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: "Samba Team Releases Samba 3.2
                                            =============================

July 1st 2008.

The Samba Team is proud to announce the release of Samba 3.2, a major
new release of the award-winning Free Software file and print server
suite for Microsoft Windows (R) clients.

The evolution of the Samba platform
===================================

Samba 3.2 builds upon the success of Samba 3.0 by modernizing and
enhancing the code whilst still retaining compatibility with all
existing Samba installations. Samba is the leading technology choice
for Windows file serving on UNIX (R) platforms and in embedded Network
Attached Storage (NAS) solutions. Samba is used by vendors selling NAS
solutions ranging from high end clustered business-critical systems,
to low end consumer devices, and everything in between.

Clustered file server support
============================

Samba 3.2, in conjunction with the ctdb (http://ctdb.samba.org)
libraries and a back-end distributed file system such as Sun's Lustre
(R), IBM's GPFS (R) or Red Hat's GFS (R), can provide a fully
clustered file server solution. Every node is able to simultaneously
serve an identical, consistent view of the exported file system. Not
just a simple "fail-over" high availability solution, Samba 3.2 with
ctdb provides a scalable clustered file server solution with full
Windows file sharing semantics. Samba and ctdb are already being
shipped in production file serving products to some of the most
demanding customers in the world in fields such as animation and video
production.

Easier configuration
====================

Samba 3.2 introduces a 'registry' based configuration system. This
allows vendors embedding Samba in an appliance to more easily manage
Samba configuration via the supplied commands or library functions
without having to write scripts to modify a text file.

Improved Integration with Microsoft Windows (R)
===============================================

Samba 3.2 has been designed and tested to integrate with the latest
Microsoft Windows (R) clients and servers, such as Windows Vista (R)
service pack 1, and Windows server 2008 (R).

Encrypted network transport
===========================

An innovation created by the Samba Team, Samba 3.2 has extended the
CIFS/SMB protocol to allow transport encryption. File system shares
may now be marked as "encrypted" and all access to these shares is now
encrypted over the network. Standard GSSAPI encryption techniques are
used to safeguard the data. This extension to the CIFS/SMB protocol is
open and available for other vendors to adopt without requiring patent
licenses or other restrictions.

Reduced memory requirements
===========================

The memory footprint of Samba has been reduced by the use of the Samba
developed "talloc" library, in order to allow greater use of Samba in
embedded devices with limited memory requirements. All restrictions on
file name lengths have been removed.

IPv6 support
============

The networking functions have been re-written to ensure Samba 3.2 is
fully IPv6 compliant. Customers may now use Samba in an IPv6-only
network, and it has been tested to work with Microsoft Windows (R)
IPv6 implementations as well as UNIX (R) IPv6 implementations.

New library code
================

Samba 3.2 begins the migration of Samba from a monolithic application
to a more modular architecture comprised of library functions which
can be used to control and configure the Samba environment. The new
libnetapi library to control domain membership is one of the first
examples of this new approach.

New release manager
===================

Samba 3.2 marks the debut of Karolin Seeger as our new release
manager, funded full time to work on Samba releases by SerNet GmbH
(http://sernet.de). The Samba Team is happy to welcome Karolin as a
Team member, and we hope that Karolin will be driving our release
process for many years to come.

Now Licensed under the GNU GPLv3
================================

The Samba Team has adopted the Version 3 of the GNU General Public
License for the 3.2 and later releases. The GPLv3 is the updated
version of the GPLv2 license under which Samba is currently
distributed. It has been updated to improve compatibility with other
licenses and to make it easier to adopt internationally, and is an
improved version of the license to better suit the needs of Free
Software in the 21st Century.

The original announcement is available on-line at

        http://news.samba.org/announcements/samba_gplv3/

Samba is the leading choice for Microsoft Windows (R) connectivity
==================================================================

Samba 3.2 is fully portable, POSIX compliant software that runs on a
variety of UNIX and UNIX-like systems including AIX (R), FreeBSD,
HPUX(R), IRIX (R), Linux (R), Mac OS X (R) and Solaris (R). Samba is
shipped as standard on all versions of Linux, and most of the major
vendors versions of UNIX as a fully supported part of the operating
system. Samba is the leading solution for Microsoft Windows (R)
compatibility for embedded appliance and Network Attached Storage
vendors.

Getting Samba 3.2
=================

Samba 3.2 is available now from the Samba Web site and all worldwide
mirrors.

www.samba.org

About the Samba Team
====================

The Samba Team is a worldwide group of computer professionals working
together via the Internet to produce the highest quality Free Software
Windows (SMB/CIFS) server and client software.

                            Samba — "Opening Windows to a Wider World""
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft giving SMB2 talks at SambaXP

Submitted by
Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: "I'm not much for writing blog entries, but I thought Slashdot readers might like to know that Microsoft architects and testers are attending SambaXP and have been giving some wonderful talks on how the protocol document testing works, and on the design of SMB2 in order to work well on WAN links. Really interesting technical stuff. Pinch me, I'm back in 1994 and things are really fun again :-).

Cheers,

Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team"
Microsoft

Submission + - Samba Team Receives Microsoft Protocol Documentati (samba.org)

Submitted by
Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: "Samba Team Receives Microsoft Protocol Documentation
                        —

December 20th 2007. Today the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation
(PFIF), a non-profit organization created by the Software Freedom Law
Center, signed an agreement with Microsoft to receive the protocol
documentation needed to fully interoperate with the Microsoft Windows
workgroup server products and to make them available to Free Software
projects such as Samba.

Microsoft was required to make this information available to
competitors as part of the European Commission March 24th 2004
Decision in the antitrust lawsuit, after losing their appeal against
that decision on September 17th 2007.

Andrew Tridgell, creator of Samba, said, "We are very pleased to be
able to get access to the technical information necessary to continue
to develop Samba as a Free Software project. Although we were
disappointed the decision did not address the issue of patent claims
over the protocols, it was a great achievement for the European
Commission and for enforcement of antitrust laws in Europe. The
agreement allows us to keep Samba up to date with recent changes in
Microsoft Windows, and also helps other Free Software projects that
need to interoperate with Windows".

Jeremy Allison, co-creator of Samba said, "Andrew did a superb job in
negotiating the agreement with Microsoft. We will be able to use the
information obtained to continue to develop Samba and create more Free
Software. We are hoping to get back to the productive relationship we
had with Microsoft during the early 1990's when we shared information
about these protocols. The agreement also clarifies the exact patent
numbers concerned so there is no possibility of misunderstandings
around this issue."

Volker Lendecke, head of the Samba Team in Europe said, "I am very
pleased to see that the European Commission acknowledged Free Software
as a valid competitor in the IT industry and that the License
conditions on the protocol information offered to the Free Software
world are indeed compatible with the GPL. This is much better than
what we have seen in similar cases in other countries and the
Commission has done a great job to push the case to this point."

Compatible with Free Software
—

After paying Microsoft a one-time sum of 10,000 Euros, the PFIF will
make available to the Samba Team under non-disclosure terms the
documentation needed for implementation of all of the workgroup server
protocols covered by the EU decision.

Although the documentation itself will be held in confidence by the
PFIF and Samba Team engineers, the agreement allows the publication of
the source code of the implementation of these protocols without any
further restrictions. This is fully compatible with versions two and
three of the GNU General Public License (GPL). Samba is published
under the GNU GPL which is the most widely used of all Free Software
licenses. In addition it allows discussion of the protocol information
amongst implementers which will aid technical cooperation between
engineers.

Under the agreement, Microsoft is required to make available and keep
current a list of patent numbers it believes are related to the
Microsoft implementation of the workgroup server protocols, without
granting an implicit patent license to any Free Software
implementation.

No per-copy royalties are required from the PFIF, Samba developers,
third party vendors or users and no acknowledgement of any patent
infringement by Free Software implementations is expressed or implied
in the agreement.

The patent list provides us with a bounded set of work needed to
ensure non-infringement of Samba and other Free Software projects
that implement the protocols documented by Microsoft under this
agreement. Any patents outside this list cannot be asserted by
Microsoft against any implementation developed using the supplied
documentation. Unlike the highly dubious patent covenants recently
announced by some companies this warranty extends to all third
parties. Also unlike past agreements, this agreement has been
carefully scrutinized by the Software Freedom Law Center, the premier
legal experts for the GPL and Free Software.

Microsoft must keep the documentation up to date with new products and
provide error correction assistance to parties signing the
agreement. Disputes will be resolved by the Trustee appointed by the
Commission as part of the court decision.

The Samba Team would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Carlo
Piana from the Free Software Foundation Europe and Eben Moglen of the
Software Freedom Law Center, who have been our legal representation on
this case. They have provided world-class legal services for many
years and we are sincerely grateful.

The Samba Team.
20th December 2007.

Contact: press@samba.org

Samba Web site: http://www.samba.org/

For more information on the agreement see:

http://samba.org/samba/PFIF/

An article on the history of the case:

http://samba.org/samba/PFIF/PFIF_history.html

An article explaining some details of the agreement:

http://samba.org/samba/PFIF/PFIF_agreement.html

The Protocol Freedom Information Foundation Web site:

http://www.protocolfreedom.org/

The PFIF agreement text:

http://samba.org/samba/PFIF/PFIF_agreement.pdf"
Announcements

Submission + - Samba Adopts GPLv3 for Future Releases (samba.org)

Submitted by
Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: "Samba adopts GPLv3 for future releases.
—

After internal consideration in the Samba Team we have decided to adopt the
GPLv3 and LGPLv3 licences for all future releases of Samba.

The GPLv3 is the updated version of the GPLv2 license under which Samba is
currently distributed. It has been updated to improve compatibility with other
licenses and to make it easier to adopt internationally, and is an improved
version of the license to better suit the needs of Free Software in the 21st
Century.

To allow people to distinguish which Samba version is released with the new
GPLv3 license, we are updating our next version release number. The next planned
version release was to be 3.0.26, this will now be renumbered so the GPLv3
version release will be 3.2.0.

To be clear, all versions of Samba numbered 3.2 and later will be under the
GPLv3, all versions of Samba numbered 3.0.x and before remain under the GPLv2.

The Samba Team would like to thank Richard Stallman, Eben Moglen and the Free
Software Foundation for updating the GPL license, and also all the individuals
and corporations involved in helping to create the GPLv3. We feel this is an
important change to help promote the interests of Samba and other Free Software.

The Samba Team.

http://samba.org/
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
http://news.samba.org/announcements/samba_gplv3

FAQ:

What about code submissions ? Does anything change ?
— - —

New code contributions will be accepted in exactly the same way as before. As
Samba has always accepted code with the "or (at your option) any later version"
of the GPL, contributors do not need to change anything about their submissions.

I need to ship 3.0.x for several years as part of a
service contract. What about old versions ?
— - -

As with previous major version changes, the Team will continue to provide
security fixes for 3.0.25b releases for as long as this code base is widely
used. All new features will only be developed for the new 3.2.x or later GPLv3
versions however.

Help ! I've read scary things about the anti-DRM,
language in GPLv3 ? What does this mean for my Samba-based
products ?
— - —

We're not aware of any vendor distributing Samba in such a way that would cause
them to fall foul of the new DRM language in the GPLv3, but as always, consult
legal advice if you have doubts.

I am the author of a GPLv2 licensed program, can I still use the samba
libraries?
— - —

The Samba Team releases libraries under two licenses: the GPLv3 and the LGPLv3.
If your code is released under a "GPLv2 or later" license, it is compatible with
both the GPLv3 and the LGPLv3 licensed Samba code.

If your code is released under a "GPLv2 only" license, it is not compatible with
the Samba libraries released under the GPLv3 or LGPLv3 as the wording of the
"GPLv2 only" license prevents mixing with other licenses. If you wish to use
libraries released under the LGPLv3 with your "GPLv2 only" code then you will
need to modify the license on your code.

What about patent covenant agreements ? How do they
affect the distribution of Samba ?
— - -

Patent covenant deals done after 28 March 2007 are explicitly incompatible with
the license if they are "discriminatory" under section 11 of the GPLv3. Samba
distributors who have made such patent covenant agreements after that date will
not have the right to distribute any version of Samba covered by the GPLv3
(Samba 3.2 or later). The rights of vendors to ship 3.0.25b and previous
versions is unchanged and remains as it was under the GPLv2. Consult legal
advice if you are in doubt."
Editorial

Submission + - Musings on DRM and Star Trek. (tuxdeluxe.org)

Submitted by
Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: "Engineers know that DRM doesn't work, that it can't possibly work. Yet just like Scotty when Captain Kirk calls from the bridge asking for the impossible they can't seem to help producing ever more complicated versions of the same broken system. Companies keep trying to create and sell DRM systems to the content industry. Having lots of money thrown at them to do this probably helps, just like Scotty liked to be thought of as a miracle worker.

Jeremy"
Announcements

Submission + - New "Lowpoint" columns posted online.

Submitted by
Jeremy Allison - Sam
Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: "Deryck Hodge, our wonderful webmaster for Samba.org
has posted the next batch of "Lowpoint" columns
online :

http://samba.org/samba/news/articles/low_point/

Specifically people might like "In Search of Google" (column 19)

http://samba.org/samba/news/articles/low_point/col umn19.html

"Fear and Loathing in Cupertino" — my view on Apple (column 20)

http://samba.org/samba/news/articles/low_point/col umn20.html

and "Signs and Portents" about the Novell Microsoft deal amongst
other things (column 22)

http://samba.org/samba/news/articles/low_point/col umn22.html

Hope people enjoy them !

Jeremy."

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