“Apple’s AFP will no longer be the default file sharing protocol in OS X 10.9 ‘Mavericks,'” John Rizzo reports for MacWindows.
“Apple is adding Microsoft’s SMB2 to OS X and making it the default for file sharing with Windows — and with Macs running OS X 10.9 as well,” Rizzo reports. “SMB will still be supported for compatibility with older PCs and devices, and AFP will be supported for file sharing with previous OS X versions. Apple’s adoption of SMB2 (Server Message Block 2), which Microsoft rolled out in Windows Vista, could improve file sharing with Windows servers and PCs.”
Rizzo reports, “With Lion, Apple abandoned the SMB code it had been using, which was based on Samba from Linux, and wrote its own SMB code for OS X. Although it improved file sharing with Windows, it didn’t make file sharing as trouble-free as it is between Macs. Unlike SMB, AFP (short for Apple File Protocol), the default Mac file sharing protocol since Apple enabled network file sharing in the 1980’s, has always been the most reliable and trouble-free way to share files on Macs.”
Read more about which devices will use which file sharing protocols in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hey look, Vista was good for something, at least, even if this is sort of like asking Typhoid Mary to “please pass the meat.”
Surely, Federighi has his reasons.
(And, yes, before you start demanding things, we’ll stop calling you Shirley.)
Seriously? There is something MS produced (in Vista, no less) that isn’t just kludgy rubbish? Any techies there?
Network protocols evolved to support higher data transfer rates, important to end users of file sharing services in mixed Mac/Win networks. And security is always an issue. It only made sense to Apple’s engineering team to move away from the older AFP and flaky SMB in such settings. The implementation should be dandy for those of us whose dentists wondered why we were grinding our teeth so frequently.
It is already in 10.8.4. Not that I can KNOW but it must be, since last week I can now instantly connect to Windows shares, hidden or as share. When I open a network Windows 2008 R2 share it reacts instantly where as before 10.8.4 I had to wait a few seconds. The same goes for files I have a shortcut for. Instant.
Will this providing any progress in fixing the currently broken search on SMB connected shared drives? Since Mountain Lion, it has been impossible to do searches on any SMB shared drives, which has been a huge headache for our mixed Apple/Windows work network.
Sounds like an effort to become more Enterprise friendly.
… or an admission that Microsoft completely won the enterprise market. Sad news indeed.
Mike and sad news in the same post, how apropos.
Sorry i don’t sugar-coat reality to satisfy your emotionally vulnerable tastes. But do please explain how Apple adopting increasing amounts of Microsoft technology is anything but a failure of Apple to outcompete.
With the adoption of Bing and now this change it seems the campaign to do more damage to Google continues. Apple is pissed and will even get in bed with Mr Softy to dent them. Next up Bing as the default for iOS and OSX. That is a lot of users.
Many people may not remember that the current AFP under OS X is actually AFP 2. Earlier versions of the classic MacOS had AFP 1, and transitioning between them was a real pain.
I think that this acknowledgement that SMB 2 is (a) far better than the old SMB, (b) the equal of, and supported by more than, AFP, and (c) is at least the de facto standard, is very wise on Apple’s part. Now Macs will be “plug and play” even in Windows networks, and this removes the final area where Windows SAs really had something to object about.
But does any of that mean that the inability to search on external SMB drives is now going to be fixed?
Fret not, the Windows SAs will find other herrings (red or otherwise) to bandy about.
😆
Classic! It’s “Embrace, extend, and extinguish”, but by Apple 🙂
Any doubts that Apple has lost its way?
iOS 7 is the love child of Windows Phone and Android in appearance.
The Mac Pro has been sacrificed on the altar of fufu design- form over function in all things.
The claim to fame of the latest iMac is that it is thinner and lacks an optical drive.
Siri now powered by Bing?!?
Now file sharing from Vista.
Surely you jest!
I hope this will fix the issues with searching a Windows server from my Mac (This worked well before Lion).
As long as searching Windows in itself is useless, searching from a Windows computer on a Windows share is useless, I am not expecting anything from Apple. Would it not be cool if Apple searched Windows shares better than MS? 🙂
“Please pass the meat.” LOL!