Filepro and Samba

[Fairlight]

On Wed, Nov 08, 2006 at 11:19:45AM -0500, Boaz Bezborodko, the prominent pundit,
witicized:
> 
> So what's the easiest way for me to setup a stable Linux/Samba server? 

Up-front, Boaz, I -know- someone (possibly you, almost certainly someone
else) will take this as a snotty and elitist answer.  It's not at all meant
as such; it's meant purely as my opinion on the matter.

That said, if you have to ask those questions, you shouldn't be doing
it alone for a production environment.  This is very similar to the,
"If you have to ask, you can't afford it," axiom from time immemorial.
The difference being risk.  

You can get yourself into a fair amount of trouble through ignorance in
any flavour of *nix.  Contrary to what some believe should be the place of
*nix today (PnP, easy for any 8yr-old to install and configure without any
systems knowledge, a 'doze drop-in replacement), that's simply 1) never
going to completely happen, and 2) never should happen.  The degree of
complexity hidden under the hood by any administrative tools is not to be
taken lightly, as powerful tools come with a responsibility to know how to
use them.  

I equate running *nix in a production environment without the proper
knowledge and skillset to running a sandblaster or table-saw without
protective eyewear; you're asking to get hurt.

You -can- DIY, but if your *nix experience is minimal to none (I'm guessing
it is, if you have to ask those kinds of questions), I'd -highly- suggest
either getting someone who knows the system well to actually set it up and
maintain it for you, or alternatively go with Windows--which, while less
than stellar, does require far less of a learning curve.

> For security I don't let any connections to the my existing server
> through the firewall, so I'll probably keep it that way initially.  What
> else should I be worried about/prepared for?

That question exemplifies what I'm talking about.  You know neither what
to expect, nor what areas of concern are pertinent--and you're talking
about putting a machine configured under such circumstances and scope of
knowledge into a production environment.  That's not really advisable.
Production environments aren't the place to learn the basics, nor to take
chances.

No offense, nothing at all personal, and I say this with the sole intent of
trying to prevent you from digging a hole for yourself as I've seen others
do over the years.

mark->
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