Infoworld: Open sources blog: Samba 4 threatens Microsoft's enterprise lock-in

Infoworld: Open sources blog: Samba 4 threatens Microsoft's enterprise lock-in

'via Blog this'

Thanks to significant cooperation by Microsoft, an open-source alternative to Active Directory now exists, providing the ability for Linux Servers to provide Active Directory resources to Microsoft networks.

Notably, this includes the first open source implementation of Microsoft's Active Directory protocols; Samba previously only offered Windows NT domain controller functions. According to their press release, "Samba 4.0 provides everything needed to serve as an Active Directory Compatible Domain Controller for all versions of Microsoft Windows clients currently supported by Microsoft, including the recently released Windows 8." (Phipps, 2012)

Samba 4 can join existing Active Directory domains and also provides all necessary function to host a domain that can be joined by Microsoft Active Directory servers. It is provides all the services needed by Microsoft Exchange, as well as opening up the possibility of fully open source alternatives to Exchange such as the OpenChange project  (Phipps, 2012)

Reference:

Phipps, S. (2012, December 12).  Samba 4 threatens Microsoft's enterprise lock-in.
          [Web log message]. Infoworld: Open sources blog. Retrieved from
          http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/samba-4-threatens-microsofts-enterprise-lock-in-209024

.