Jeremy Allison wrote an expanded version of "A Tale of Two Standards" that appears in Open Sources 2.0 under a Creative Commons license. (The original article can be found in our archive of Jeremy's columns.)

The Open Sources 2.0 version, with its greater detail, provides an excellent overview of the differences in the POSIX and Win32 APIs. The article makes clear the need for open standards, has some great examples that draw on Jeremy's extensive experience, and serves as an introduction to the complexity of the Samba project's task.

So go now and read the newly archived copy of A Tale of Two Standards (as published in Open Sources 2.0). It will certainly be time well spent.