File sharing for Linux only network.

On Sunday 12 February 2012 17:02, in alt.os.linux.ubuntu,
wrote:

Hi,

One thing I've never been good at is file sharing over my network. I've
been using Samba since I used to have a Windows computer or two hooked
up making Samba the way to go. The last few years I haven't had any
Windows computers, but continued to use Samba. What would be the
simplest to set up way to do file sharing on a Ubuntu/Mint only network?

NFS (Network File System) is the de-facto standard for tightly-coupled
filesharing among POSIX-compatible systems such as Linux.

If the answer is still Samba, so be it.

While Samba will work, it doesn't support the filesystem metadata that is
necessary for Linux filesharing. Samba's utility is in permitting Linux (or
any POSIX-compatable) systems to provide remote file services for Microsoft
Windows environments.

My network consist of a couple
of desktop machines and several laptops which are connected wirelessly.
I also have a printer connected to my router which is used by all the
connected computers (HP printer using HPlip). Whatever change I make
mustn't break the shared printer setup.

I've run NFS for about 10 years, and not had my shared printer setup broken.
If you run CUPS (or even lpr/lprng), there is no impact for natively-shared
printers. OTOH, if you print to Samba-exported printers, you'll have to
switch to native (networked) printer support.

HTH
Lew Pitcher