This tutorial explains how to turn an old PC with additional hard disks into a simple home file server. The file server is intended for home use. The home file server is accessible by Windows and Linux computers in the home network.

http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-home-fileserver

This tutorial explains the installation of a Samba file server on Debian Etch and how to configure it to share files over the SMB protocol as well as adding users. Samba is configured as a standalone server, not as a domain controller. In the resulting setup, every user has its own home directory that is accessible via SMB protocol and all users have a shared directory with read/write access.

http://www.howtoforge.com/debian_etch_samba_standalone_server_with_tdbsam_backend

This is a detailed description about how to set up a Ubuntu based server (Ubuntu 6.10) to act as a file- and printserver for Windows workstations in small workgroups. This howto uses the tdb backend for SAMBA to store passwords and account information. This is suitable for workgroups for up to 250 users and is easier to set up than an LDAP backend.

http://www.howtoforge.com/samba_domaincontroller_setup_ubuntu_6.10

Samba software, is a free, open source implementation of networking protocols to share files between UNIX/Linux and Windows computers.

There are many ways to set permissions to your Samba shares and improve security. This article will cover some of the basic permissions and permission precedence with examples.

The Samba team posted the below announcement about the recent Novell/SuSE/Microsoft news.

The Samba Team disapproves strongly of the actions taken by Novell on November 2nd.

One of the fundamental differences between the proprietary software world and the free software world is that the proprietary software world divides users by forcing them to agree to coercive licensing agreements which restrict their rights to share with each other, whereas the free software world encourages users to unite and share the benefits of the software.

The patent agreement struck between Novell and Microsoft is a divisive agreement. It deals with users and creators of free software differently depending on their "commercial" versus "non-commercial" status, and deals with them differently depending on whether they obtained their free software directly from Novell or from someone else.