In yet another corporate win for the open source software movement, Silicon Graphics Inc has announced support for Samba 2.0 on its Origin line of servers. Samba includes a Server Message Block (SMB) server, which means it can provide Windows NT and LAN Manager-style file and print services to SMB clients such as Windows 95 and Warp. That makes it possible to use a Unix server to support Windows clients without anyone knowing any better. Anecdotal evidence credits Samba with encouraging the unsuspected-by-upper-management penetration of Unix into corporate environments. Support from a vendor with a profile as high as SGI’s could make that process formal, bringing Samba servers out of the wiring closet, as it were. SGI boasts that it is the first commercial Unix vendor to support Samba software in this way. Andrew Tridgell, the Australian computer scientist who created Samba, gave the announcement his stamp of approval. Silicon Graphics has done an excellent job integrating Samba with Irix to ensure that the robustness, performance and scalability strengths of Irix show through, he said. SGI says it will begin shipping Samba to customers any day now. Media and documentation will cost $300, while a one-year support contract will set IT directors back $1,500.
