# Samba 36 Hacker News commenters recommended Samba and 21 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Free, long-running file sharing server that people use for Time Machine, LAN shares and simple, low-maintenance setups. Common caveat: flaky connections with macOS and iPhone clients. ## Why people recommend it - Simple config with little maintenance (5 comments): "It's not pretty nor great with bad connections, but there is basically no maintenance." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50112125)) "samba configuration is a relatively straight forward ini style file on the server" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47954549)) "the Samba configuration is really simple, up to 20 lines in one conf file" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47906776)) - Time Machine backups work reliably (3 comments): "Time Machine backups to a samba share on the Linux box would get you both the Photos library database and the iCloud Drive stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46257755)) "Time Machine to a network share via Samba has been pretty reliable for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47967357)) "official easy to use support for being used with Time Machine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927135)) - Long-standing, well-proven open source (5 comments): "Samba is one of those incredibly useful pieces of open source software that sometimes I feel I take for granted." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46554907)) "Samba was arguably the way Linux snuck into corporations in the late 90s." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46574335)) "I am nothing but grateful for Samba and Rsync." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48344407)) - Easy home and LAN setup (4 comments): "how powerful it was for our little LAN in the dorm" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49143536)) "It's really not hard to setup LVM and Samba." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49496078)) "the Raspberry has a Samba fileshare" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898035)) ## What people warn about - Flaky with macOS and iPhone (4 comments): "I tried setting up SAMBA by itself (on Debian) for Time Machine, but for it to work it seems to want Avahi running for mDNS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50153731)) "I have been fighting annoying Samba issues with MacOS and a Linux NAS for years now" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46057428)) "manage samba (which is a huge pain in the ass to get to work properly on iPhone)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48828225)) - Breaks or unreliable on bad connections (3 comments): "All my code lives on the other end of a Samba share. Guess what doesn't work reliably." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49199288)) "It's not pretty nor great with bad connections, but there is basically no maintenance." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50112125)) "my Samba share totally broke and days later I still don't have it working" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47226283)) - Awkward to configure (3 comments): "still periodically awkward to deal with" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46551564)) "how come it's such a terrible experience that we need to re-invent the wheel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48074285)) "SMB1 was much easier to setup and use vs modern samba." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46013044)) - Not a drop-in for serious networks (3 comments): "Samba serving SMB isn't really equivalent." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48070880)) "nowhere near a drop-in replacement for serious networks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47857719)) "it's not a "finished product", not actively maintained" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49143650)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [NFS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nfs.md): 20 recommend - [Netatalk](https://hackerapproved.com/p/netatalk.md): 7 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Samba", https://hackerapproved.com/p/samba/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).