1. A lot of emphasis has been placed on peaceful coexistence between UNIX and Windows. Unfortunately, the two systems come from very different cultures and they have difficulty getting along without mediation. ...and that, of course, is Samba's job. Samba <http://samba.org/> runs on UNIX platforms, but speaks to Windows clients like a native. It allows a UNIX system to move into a Windows ``Network Neighborhood'' without causing a stir. Windows users can happily access file and print services without knowing or caring that those services are being offered by a UNIX host. All of this is managed through a protocol suite which is currently known as the ``Common Internet File System,'' or CIFS <http://www.cifs.com>. This name was introduced by Microsoft, and provides some insight into their hopes for the future. At the heart of CIFS is the latest incarnation of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, which has a long and tedious history. Samba is an open source CIFS implementation, and is available for free from the http://samba.org/ mirror sites. Samba and Windows are not the only ones to provide CIFS networking. OS/2 supports SMB file and print sharing, and there are commercial CIFS products for Macintosh and other platforms (including several others for UNIX). Samba has been ported to a variety of non-UNIX operating systems, including VMS, AmigaOS, and NetWare. CIFS is also supported on dedicated file server platforms from a variety of vendors. In other words, this stuff is all over the place. From Rute-Users-Guide

2. Samba adds Windows-networking support to UNIX. Whereas NFS is the most popular protocol for sharing files among UNIX machines, SMB is the most popular protocol for sharing files among Windows machines. The Samba package adds the ability for UNIX systems to interact with Windows systems. Key point: The Samba package comprises the following: smbd The Samba service allowing other machines (often Windows) to read files from a UNIX machine. nmbd Provides support for NetBIOS. Logically, the SMB protocol is layered on top of NetBIOS, which is in turn layered on top of TCP/IP. smbmount An extension to the mount program that allows a UNIX machine to connect to another machine implicitly. Files can be accessed as if they were located on the local machines. smbclient Allows files to be access through SMB in an explicity manner. This is a command-line tool much like the FTP tool that allows files to be copied. Unlike smbmount, files cannot be accessed as if they were local. smb.conf The configuration file for Samba. From Hacking-Lexicon

3. a suite of programs which work together to allow clients to access to a server's filespace and printers via the SMB (Session Message Block) protocol. This means that you can redirect disks and printers to Unix disks and printers from Lan Manager clients, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 clients, Windows NT clients, Linux clients and OS/2 clients. From Linux Guide @FirstLinux

4. A LanManager like file and printer server for Unix. The Samba software suite is a collection of programs that implements the SMB protocol for unix systems, allowing you to serve files and printers to Windows, NT, OS/2 and DOS clients. This protocol is sometimes also referred to as the LanManager or NetBIOS protocol. This package contains all the components necessary to turn your Debian GNU/Linux box into a powerful file and printer server. Currently, the Samba Debian packages consist of the following: samba - A LanManager like file and printer server for Unix. samba-common - Samba common files used by both the server and the client. smbclient - A LanManager like simple client for Unix. swat - Samba Web Administration Tool samba-doc - Samba documentation. smbfs - Mount and umount commands for the smbfs (kernels 2.0.x and above). libpam-smbpass - pluggable authentication module for SMB password database libsmbclient - Shared library that allows applications to talk to SMB servers libsmbclient-dev - libsmbclient shared libraries winbind: Service to resolve user and group information from Windows NT servers It is possible to install a subset of these packages depending on your particular needs. For example, to access other SMB servers you should only need the smbclient and samba-common packages. From Debian 3.0r0 APT