One thing that we already know is that Microsoft paid Sun Microsystems and Novell to virtually concede their endeavors in the European Union. This was actually stated last month in an interview with Samba and FSF folks -- an interview that was put into text and then published in Groklaw. Essentially, Samba was left alone to handle Microsoft in Europe. Look where we ended up [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. Shane pretty much foresaw all of this exactly a year ago.

Now, have a look at this new article from Paul Krill.

Sun recently donated server source code that implements CIFS to the OpenSolaris project.

Windows interoperability requires that a CIFS server convince a Windows client or server that it is Windows, according to Sun. Thusly, the operating system needs to support those services at a fundamental level.

How does Microsoft fit into this? It signed some more papers with Sun a couple of months ago. ⬆

Update: The Register sheds some more light on this.

"€¿Que?" you may be exclaiming (perhaps you've just arrived home from a Spanish language class). Surely there is Samba on Solaris.

[...]

Wright said Samba will continue to be a relevant multi-platform application service that provides file and print service for Windows and CIFS clients. Samba also has features and capabilities that the new integration doesn't yet have — and possibly never include, such as the ability to be a master browser.