While I prefer Linux, I also have OSX boxes - and sometimes the odd Windows machine will show up on my LAN. I want to share files across these machines. You'd suggest SMB right (or File Sharing in Apple parlance)?
Wrong.
For a long time, File Sharing (SMB or AFP) was a hit and miss type of service on every OSX machine I used. Most of the time it worked - and then it doesn't, and you hunt around for a cause, trying various actions to fix the issue that strangely appeared without any changes to the machine. It was frustrating. (and no, it wasn't just user error! lol)
Then the fix hit me one day - SFTP!
And I've never been happier. (and the bonus, all my communications are encrypted!)
On your OSX box, head to System Preferences -> Sharing -> disable File Sharing and enable Remote Login. Chose who to allow onto your box.
You may not know it - but your life just got easier (and less frustrating).
Connecting to that machine from various other machines will now be dependable and consistent. You can use, from your command line, sftp, ssh, scp (and probably others). For GUI clients, there are too many to list - from Dophin on KDE, to ForkLift on OSX.
The biggest negative to this solution is that the default Connect to Server on OSX won't (natively) support SSH, neither does Windows. There are ways to make me into a liar though - and I encourage you to check these out.
While describing OpenSSH is out of scope for this post - configuring this tool correctly will allow for a secure and simpler authentication experience.
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