[kwlug-announce] Meeting Monday, 7pm: Samba 4

[Paul Nijjar]

Wailing. Gnashing of teeth. Stalwart long-time KWLUG members picketing
the KWLUG world headquarters in their wheelchairs and walkers. So much
controversy! But if KWLUG is known for anything it is ignoring the
voice of popular opinion, so we're going ahead anyways: this month's
presentation on Samba will revisit a previous topic. It's true! We
have had presentations on Samba not once but twice in the past, and
the last one was held a mere ten years ago, in January 2004. (How
scandalous!)

I remember those days, and sometimes I think about them while sitting
in my walker. Linux was still cool and we were all fresh-faced
and optimistic. I remember hearing about how Samba made it easy for us
to interoperate with Windows fileshares and printers, and how we could
publish our own. And I remember the exciting talk of Samba 4 -- how it
would take Windows interoperability to the next level by allowing us
to simulate Active Directory domain controllers and workstations in
non-Microsoft environments. Soon we would be enjoying a glorious future.

Years passed. Samba remained popular -- if you set up "Windows
shares" on a Mac or a Linux server or a NAS, it is probably using
Samba. But Samba 4 remained under development for years and years and
years -- until December 2012, when it was released to the world. Now
Samba 4 is here, and it provides a free software implementation of
Active Directory. Does it work? Does anybody use it? Lori Paniak does,
and during his presentation he will take us through his experiences
with Samba 4's capabilities. 

In other news, those of us interested in the Open Data movement might
be interested in International Open Data Day, being held on Feb 22.
Open Data Waterloo Region is holding an hackfest which might include
incorporating food premise inspection data to OpenStreetMap. The event
is still being planned, so to get details you can visit their wiki
page at http://wiki.opendataday.org/Waterloo_Region . 

Also: we are precariously close to having an empty
presentation slot for March. If you would like to offer a 40 minute
presentation on some topic related to free software, please get in
touch. There are many presentation slots available for June and beyond
as well.

As usual, this month's meeting will be held at St John's Kitchen: 

St John's Kitchen
(corner of Victoria and Weber)
Kitchener

Doors open around 6:30pm, and setup helpers are always welcome. The
meeting starts at 7pm. There is some parking available at the Worth A
Second Look parking lot, and you can chain your picket signs to the
side of the building. You can find pictures and maps of the meeting
location here: http://kwlug.org/sjk

- Paul
-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org