Huh, I completely confused by others editing my post... breaking all system of referencing and linking into a mess...
Bifurcating the question (1)
Can anybody share experience and/or links on running Samba Linux Active Directory Server, like in "Samba 4: Linux Active Directory Server", on Windows workstation (like XP Pro)?
What are pro and contra of using Cygwin vs. running Linux in virtual machine for this?
jscott wrote in question(1): "Windows, specifically its licensing philosophy, is quite antithetical to the ideals of the GPL".
I could not get: what are the problems of running GPL applications on Windows?
Besides, ComputerWorld tells us:
- "Bartlett said the Samba team now has a good relationship with Microsoft and the password bug was never in any of its documentation so "they never thought it existed". Microsoft has also provided a copy of its AD schema which can be worked around by the Samba team"
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Edit1 (concerning XP Eula):
I forked the issues of ethical use of Windows Xp as server to question Windows XP used as server
I would certainly use samba in its native environment: a linux VM inside Virtualbox or Vmware.
It's surely more mature and tested : ample userbase, more documentation , etc. Of course one of the best starting points is samba site itsself
There are absolutley no (legal) problems on running GPL software on windows , some people object it for "ethical" reasons just becacuse it would not be a completely "Free" (as in speech) environment.
I would not recommend a Windows xp OS as a production enviroment for the domain hosted by samba but it's sureley great for testing and prototyping
There are a very few hits on this, none recent:
Using Samba under cygwin is going to be much more hassle than it's worth. Dedicating 1 box to a simple Linux setup will be a much easier solution; several distros even allow you to check-to-install and configure a samba DC during the initial setup.
Again, per your previous question, this is basically for a small number of XP workstations for which you'd like to have single sign-on, yes? As was pointed out there, for a large number of users things like WSUS and real Group Policy are must-haves. However, for 2-5 workstations Automatic Updates and a quick sit-down at each desk should be sufficient. If you don't want to pay for a Windows Server, Samba on Linux is likely to get you what you need in a small environment. If you're willing to take the time to figure out a flaky install on cygwin you'd be better served learning how to run a solid install on Linux or FreeBSD.