What is CIFS and how do I get it?

[Agent-X]

I'm using some features of networking and transferring files with Linux. At the moment, I'm reviewing a Clonezilla page. It tells me that I need CIFS if I want to transfer compressed, NTFS partitions over a network. It's also saying that I shouldn't use SMB/Samba.

///NOTE/// Do NOT use smbfs, use cifs, since cifs has better compatibility. Clonezilla live will FAIL to save a correct image when you using smbfs!

Source: Clonezilla

I figured out how to get SSH with Ubuntu; that was easy: sudo apt-get install ssh

At the moment, I can't figure out how to do anything with CIFS. Matter of fact, I can't find any real tutorials on what it is, how to install it, and how to use it.

I'm getting the impression I'm suppose to use it from Windows. I rather not.

[MikeTbob]

CIFS is Common Internet File System, read more about it here.
What is CIFS? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary
What is Common Internet File System? - a definition from Whatis.com - see also: CIFS
And I believe it was started by MS but it should be supported in your distro's kernel. I'm not real familiar with CIFS, but I do know that you can use it in /etc/fstab to mount window shares during bootup.