netatalk

An implementation of the AppleTalk stack for Unix-type machines, allowing a server to provide file and print services to Mac clients. Roughly analagous to samba for PC (Microsoft Windows) clients. Unlike samba, however, getting netatalk to work almost invariably requires a recompile of the kernel to include AppleTalk, natively or as a module. (The sole exception I know of would be LinuxPPC, which comes with AppleTalk bundled into the kernel by default.)

With respect to chaosmind, netatalk is perhaps more accurately defined as an implementation of the AppleShare stack, rather than mere AppleTalk. Netatalk can provide fileservice to Mac OS clients over pure TCP/IP, negating the need for the largely defunct AppleTalk networking stack.

FWIW, installation is an easy 2 minute job with RPM, and configuration is a snap (one additional line in /etc/modules.conf). The Linux 2.2 kernel has AppleTalk services available, and obviously already has TCP/IP. At the risk of being immodest, I have demonstrated a new netatalk installation on a virgin Linux laptop, from rpm -ivh to logging into the server via the Mac's Chooser, in under 4 minutes (and that includes inevitable typos due to the big projector screen) :-)

The excellent and very secure TurboLinux 6 and higher installs a modern Netatalk package as part of it's standard server install.

"Fearing Macintoshes is just plain dumb."

STOP PRESS

Netatalk 1.5 is out on sourceforge and man it wails! All legacy bugs squashed. Showstoppers gone. QuarkXPress and Photoshop network saves work every time! Universal NIC support. FAST!