Next Alpha Version of Samba 4
The developers of the Samba 4 version have released the second alpha version three months after the initial alpha.
In their announcment the developers warn users not to deploy the version in production environments. Although many of the second alpha version's elements work well, some critical functionality is still missing.
Samba 4 was mainly designed to support the Active Directory protocols used by Windows 2000 and later. Samba founder Andrew Tridgell announced at Samba XP 2007 that Samba 4 will be able to act both as a domain controller and as a member server for Active Directory. As the developers revealed in the release notes for the second alpha, Samba 4 is much happier to play the domain controller role. The developers have spent most of their time working on this.
Samba 4 can handle the server side actions for Active Directory logon by Windows 2000 computers or computers with later Windows versions. The Release Notes include a list of changes. If you are interested in installing Samba 4 alpha for test purposes, much help is available from the Wiki. The source code tarball is available on the projects download page, with Debian packages to follow soon.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs Transitions to Linux
Another major organization has decided to kick Microsoft Windows and Office to the curb in favor of Linux.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.