I recently switched from using Netatalk to Samba for file access from MacOS to linux.
Obviously the Samba is a great resource, on the Samba Wiki the Configure Samba to Work Better with Mac OS X was invaluable for setting up the /etc/samba/smb.conf file, and the vfs fruit man page contains documentation for all the options.
Here is the /etc/samba/smb.conf file I use:
[global]