Okay, having re-installed the older version of Ubuntu Mate 14.04.1 based on the link provided by G45, I can report the following:
Following initial installation, I did not download any of the 280mb of updates. Instead, I immediately installed Sama and made the standard connections to a folder I wished to share and then rebooted. Until recently, this would be all that was necessary. I would be able to go to network place and find my server listed and all of the shared folders inside it.
On this occasion, it was also listed, which was an immediate improvement on the latest iteration of 14.04 (14.04.2), which had not even listed the server, never mind it’s shared folder contents. However, that’s as far as the improvement went. As soon as I clicked on the server icon, Caja crashed. It did this repeatedly.
I then proceeded to download and install all 280mb of updates. I then rebooted. Now, however, even the server was not listed in the network places. In other words, the exact same problem as with 14.04.2
From all of the above, I might surmise the following possibility:
The problem of the crashing samba with 14.04.1 may have always been an issue right from the beginning with a new install. This, though, was immediately resolved with the downloading of updates. However, the updates that are currently downloading to a 14.04.1 installation are somehow tainted with the samba problem which afflicts 14.04.2 and 15.04.