Samba uses the SMB protocol to share files and printers across a network connection. Operating systems that support this protocol include Microsoft Windows, OS/2, and Linux.
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 kernel contains Access Control List (ACL) support for ext3 file systems. If the Samba server shares an ext3 file system with ACLs enabled for it, and the kernel on the client system contains support for reading ACLs from ext3 file systems, the client automatically recognizes and uses the ACLs.
Samba is useful if you have a network of both Windows and Linux machines. Samba allows files and printers to be shared by all the systems in a network. To share files between Linux machines only, use NFS as discussed in Chapter 14 Network File System (NFS). To share printers between Linux machines only, you do not need to use Samba; refer to Chapter 26 Printer Configuration.