Hi,As far as Samba goes, from what I've heard, there are a few big benefits.
Frist, with apparently IBM file/print client, there is a limitation on the file size which can be transfered (4 Gigs I think?) An individual file larger then the limitation will not transfer properly (I havn't tested this myself, but read something about it somewhere). Samba doesn't have this limitation (or if it does have a file size limitation, it is much larger). For most files this isn't a problem, but if you're doing anything with (for example) uncompressed video files, uncompressed audio, etc - the files can get huge pretty quick.
Second, the Samba client can see the "long file names" which Windows 95/98/ME generates. IBM File/Print only sees the "shortened" 8.3 filenames coming off such a machine.
Also, it used to be true with the older version of Samba/2 (1.9.x) :
http://www.jacco2.dds.nl/samba/samba2.html
that Samba had a smaller memory footprint then the File/Print sharing, so on machines with lower system resources, this could be useful. I have no idea if this is still the case on the latest version.
Also, as mentioned, file/print isn't going to see updates from IBM (the only updates I see potentially happening is *if* a major security issue is found, I could see IBM providing a fix for it... but I don't even see that happening... by now the product has been around long enough that any security issues have likely been already found and fixed). Samba receives frequent updates.