Clicking "share" on directory in Windows Explorer, digging through config panel, fidgeting with network discovery options, toggling password protection, digging through account management, jumping over a chair 3 times to channel my inner Bill Gates, checking directory permissions, sacrificing 7 virgin unicorns, go into lusrmgr.msc, curse various gods, install CIFS1.0 protocol, reboot computer, disable encryption, checking registry, trying to summon Steve Ballmer using the blood of a bald goat and sweat-scented candles... 5 hours.

Install Ubuntu on spare SSD, mount Windows NTFS drive, start SMB daemon and set up samba users... 15 minutes.

What the fuck, since when Linux is better at Windowsing than Windows!?

++ for samba
Works like a charm every time.
Even when doing the complicated things.

Is this another baseless bashing or what?

I never really had trouble sharing files on a network from a windows PC, but I do love me some samba on Linux. I have a RPi samba share setup with a 4TB drive in home local network since all my devices can connect to it and stream media, including the TV.

Though Im thinking of switching to NFS, apparently it performs better, but Im unsure of the support on the other devices, so I'll need to test it does all I want first...

@iiii Clearly not baseless, as this rant is based on a real situation.

Overall, I like Windows 10. Unlike many other people, I think it's generally much better than all its predecessors -- except for a few areas.

One of those areas is that file sharing has become much less user friendly. Somehow Windows feels that there is a need to differentiate between multiple "Share" and "Advanced Sharing" options -- which is a completely different thing from "Advanced Sharing" in the config panel, as those are a set of security restrictions. It doesn't explain what things like "Sharing Public Folders with Homegroup Members" even means, as Homegroup functionality has been removed in a Windows Update.

So I'm not just doing the usual "Linux good, Windows bad" bandwagon kind of thing.

It's specifically about the Windows SMB/CIFS implementation getting more confusing and muddled with old tech debt, while Linux Samba has improved over time.

@Hazarth Yeah for me it's especially about cross system compatibility: I have multiple Linux and Windows systems in my house, an Android phone and a few Raspberry Pis.

Maybe my rage shouldn't be just aimed at Windows, as Windows <--> Windows seems to be working most of the time.

With Android apps which (claim to) support SMB it's a bit of a gamble whether they can find Windows shares, while those all work flawlessly with a Linux SMB server.

So I bet it all comes down to various protocol differences -- and Microsoft being "NO ONE USES SHARES ANYMORE, HAVE YOU DISCOVERED THE VALUE OF A ONEDRIVE SUBSCRIPTION YET?"

@bittersweet okay, that's fair. Basic sharing is weird and janky

@HitWRight performance wise a long time. Both antivirus and NTFS got is to move to Linux/BSD based NAS appliances. They also have nice snapshot and off site back abilities.

@Hazarth you can run both protocols at the same time. Only thing that can get in the way is permissions but in a home setup is usually no issue.

@hjk101

yeah but I was also trying to keep the RPi relatively unburdened, not sure how it would perform if two different daemons streamed from the same drive?

though I might give it a try and see, not like it's hard to apt install it just to try!

@Hazarth is not an issue. Samba is quite a big thing nfs however is almost entirely in kernel and super lightweight when not being used. It's like worrying about vfat being installed and "running".

@hjk101 oh, is that so? I thought they are on the same level of .. "weight".. I guess? this is good information :) thanks