Microsoft Giving SMB2 Talks At SambaXP

Jeremy Allison - Sam writes "I'm not much for writing blog entries, but I thought Slashdot readers might like to know that Microsoft architects and testers are attending SambaXP and have been giving some wonderful talks on how the protocol document testing works, and on the design of SMB2 in order to work well on WAN links. Really interesting technical stuff. Pinch me, I'm back in 1994 and things are really fun again :-)."

Isn't that game a little old?

[The Faywood Assassin]

Why is Microsoft giving talks about Super Mario Bros. 2? That game is YEARS old. I don't think anyone even plays it anymore.

Re:

[pipatron]

I don't think anyone even plays it anymore.

I do, and I'm quite sure you will find that a lot of other slashdotters do as well.

Re:

[Khaed]

"Me too!"

I got it on the Wii VC when it came out, and I've played through it. It's strange (and a little scary) how the skill is still there even though I'm not a regular gamer and certainly not a regular Mario-er.

Re:

[CastrTroy]

Thanks to Virtual Console, on the Wii, a whole generation of new gamers will get to enjoy Super Mario Bros. 2. And a lot of people who played SMB2 ages ago, are still enjoying it.

Re:

[cbreaker]

Thanks to Emulation, available for the NES for at least 10 years, a lot of people who played it can still enjoy it - on their phones, xboxes, PC's, PDA's, and practically anything else.

Re:

[Lord Pillage]

Don't you mean Doki Doki Panic [wikipedia.org]?

Re:

[Kamineko]

Not enough games have SUBSPACE in, really. I miss those potions.

Storm Jameson disagrees:

Life is too short to stuff a mushroom. -- Storm Jameson

Re:

[tepples]

Not enough games have SUBSPACE in, really.

Subspace is confirmed for Brawl.

Re:

[seandiggity]

Mythbuntu + emulators + controllers = awesome

My brother played SMB2 for like 3 hours the last time he visited, and I beat SMB3 for shits and giggles a few days ago.

Re:

[tepples]

Mythbuntu + emulators + controllers = awesome

I sure wish there were decent shared-screen multiplayer games that are officially ported to Linux, so that I don't have to use ROMs of dubious legality.

SMB2 talk

[morgan_greywolf]

So, for those of who can't attend, will there be some sort of webcast or what? In particular, I'm interested in what 'SMB2' will do that (RFC-compliant) NFSv4 won't.

Re:

[erroneus]

Quick answer: Work with Windows.

Are there any good NFS clients for Windows? Any that are free? If there were, I'd seriously consider using NFS for much of my file serving needs.

Re:SMB2 talk

[zappepcs]

Yes, MS gets to look like they are playing nice nice with F/OSS by supporting SMB, but in the long run it means they don't have to develop anything to keep working along side *nix systems in the data center.

This is a win/win for MS, if I were them I'd do it too.

Note: if NFS would support Windows networking, I'd use it too. Till then, I'm happy with SMB and use it at home and work.

Re:SMB2 talk

[Anonymous Coward]

Are there any good NFS clients for Windows? Any that are free?

Yes, there's Microsoft's own [msdn.com] from their Services for Unix download or the Vista/2008 Subsystem for Unix applications.

Re:

[eln]

Sure, there are NFS implementations for Windows like the one you mention, but I wouldn't say there are any really good ones. All have them have some fairly serious flaws that make them impractical for any sort of serious use.

Re:SMB2 talk

[EvilRyry]

That only supports the crusty, insecure NFSv3. NFSv4 was released in 2000 (aka 8 freakin years ago) and has far better security and performance than v3. Microsoft has announced that they will not be updating SFU and will discontinue downloads in 2009.

So the correct answer would be "no", Microsoft hates NFS because they don't control it.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft has announced that they will not be updating SFU and will discontinue downloads in 2009.

Microsoft does some smarmy things, but in this case this is primarily just a name change. SFU -> SUA (and it comes standard on Vista/Server 2008)

download link for SUA [microsoft.com]

Being discontinued/desupported somewhat because the OSs that SFU runs on are being desupported. Surprising they want everyone to upgrade to Vista so they can make more money. LOL.

Re:

[tepples]

Why doesn't SUA work on Windows Vista Home Premium?

Re:

[abbe]

Why doesn't SUA work on Windows Vista Home Premium?

Restricting things, which're not naturally restricted sucks. A kind of DRM :( .

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost. The separate download package that is Services for Unix is being discontinued. It is instead being shipped as a part of the OS and is available in both Vista and Windows Server 2008 without an additional download. As a result there is no need to ship a separate downloadable version going forward.

Re:

[Mattsson]

As a result there is no need to ship a separate downloadable version going forward.

Except in order to support the millions of people who still will be using their previous versions of their OS in 2009.

Re:

[sumdumass]

Welcome to the world of forced upgrades. If you need it, you will have to upgrade. Gotta love closed source software for all the finer points of BS.

Need For Speed?

[tepples]

What do NESticle, FCE Ultra, and other NES emulators have to do with Need For Speed?

Re:

[morgan_greywolf]

Quick answer: Work with Windows.

Actually NFSv4 supports Windows file-sharing semantics rather better than previous versions of NFS.

I currently see Samba as more of a complement to NFSv4 to support Windows clients easily, but, OTOH, it is actually becoming increasingly possible to use only Samba for file sharing in a heterogenous UNIX/Windows environment, rather than a mix of Samba and NFS. If SMB2 ends up being better than NFSv4 in security and reliability aspects, then it may replace NFS as the defacto fi

Re:

[morgan_greywolf]

(And, for those of you without IT backgrounds, it's usually better to have one mechanism for any given system than it is to try and support multiple, partially incompatible mechanisms.)

Re:

[morgan_greywolf]

In my experience, NFS just plain blows. Maybe it's just me, but it's really bad with situations such as people coming in and out of networks (laptops). Not to mention that the caching (maybe just a client issue?) is pathetic, making high-lag situations entirely unusable.

Most of your complaints go away with RFC-compliant NFSv4. Essentially, all transactions are Kerberized. It uses GSSAPI for authentication of each transaction and allows for file sharing semantics that are extremely similar to what you get

Re:SMB2 talk

[Jeremy Allison - Sam]

The slides will be posted at the conference website, but they're not up yet. Not sure yet about audio/video.

Jeremy.

Re:

[morgan_greywolf]

w00t! Could you guys please post a link to the audio Volker mention on the Samba mirrors in news section for me when its ready? Pretty please?

Re:

[chmod a+x mojo]

Just gonna take a stab in the dark here but... have a free, easy to use windows client?

Last time I tried to use a NFS client on windows was not a painless experience. That was 1-2 years ago though , so maybe something better has come along? If anyone has any suggestions for a client to try I would be happy hear them, I still have a few windows machines at home that if I could share through NFS I could nuke samba from my file server ( I only need clients for pulling data, directory sharing is not needed).

Re:

[CastrTroy]

Why is #2 always a completely weird game for nintendo, where they completely go off track from what they did in the rest of the series. Think about SMB2, Legend of Zelda 2, and well, I'm sure there was others.

Re:

[Creepy Crawler]

Thats because the US SMB2 was not a "Mario" game. It was a rebadged game called "Doki Doki Panic".

The FDS game images exist on the net, as japanese reading comprehension needed is nil. And as expected, Doki is tougher.

Here's a link of differences along with the rom link here [progressiveboink.com]. No US SMB2 rom to compare. That'd be illegal :P

Re:

[wolrahnaes]

It's just a US thing. What we saw as SMB2 here was Doki Doki Panic in Japan. They just stuck characters from the SMB world in to another game and called it a day. If you've played "The Lost Levels" on Super Mario All-Stars, that's the real SMB2.

Re:

[Krakhan]

Even the real SMB2 feels more like a rom hack right from Nintendo of the original Super Mario Bros.

1994?

[Nimey]

Dude, SMB2 came out 1988! It was the cover game for the first issue of Nintendo Power!

More seriously, I hope they'll be made to release protocol information on a free license.

Re:1994?

[Jeremy Allison - Sam]

They've already released the protocol info publicly. The catch isn't the protocol documentation, it's the patent license they claim is needed to implement the protocol It's moving the control point from trade secrets to patents. But I'm still really happy with the release of the info to the public. The docs aren't perfect yet, but they're going to be improved. It's a very positive step.

Jeremy.

ENOUGH WITH THE SUPER MARIO BROS JOKES

[Anonymous Coward]

There's three threads on that already. You can reply to those if you must. We don't need any more.

Re:

[tepples]

Wasn't the purpose of [Super Mario Bros.] that you had to run your puppet from one end of the screen to the other

No, that was Pinocchio (Super NES/Genesis/Game Boy, Disney Interactive, 1996).

Well, we could bring out the other jokes, then.

[speedbiker]

Especially as there are way enough other meanings for SMB [acronymfinder.com]. "Self Mating Beam", for example, should be good for some more MS-related jokes...

I guess you have to be involved for it to be fun

[pembo13]

From the outside, it looks like a company that hates you was dragged kicking and screaming to come and help?talk to you

Re:I guess you have to be involved for it to be fu

[Jeremy Allison - Sam]

Yeah, that's the point really. It's *fun* :-). And also everyone is being very nice :-).

Jeremy.