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Active Directory Comes To Linux With Samba 4
Da Massive writes in with another possible answer to a recent Ask Slashdot about FOSS replacements for Microsoft AD server. "Enterprise networks now have an alternative choice to Microsoft Active Directory (AD) servers, with the open source Samba project aiming for feature parity with the forthcoming release of version 4, according to Canberra-based Samba developer Andrew Bartlett. Speaking at this year's linux.conf.au Linux and open source conference in Hobart, Bartlett said Samba 4 is aiming to be a replacement for AD by providing a free software implementation of Microsoft's custom protocols. Because AD is 'far more than LDAP and Kerberos,' Bartlett said, Samba 4 is not only about developing with Microsoft's customization of those protocols, it is also about moving the project beyond just providing an NT 4 compatible domain manager."
bullshit. there's no such thing as no lawsuit exposure. hell if anything SAMBA is hellish risky in comparison since you use it at your own risk and there is no way of knowing what submarine patent trolling asshole might popup eg. SCO. And it's pretty far fetched to claim MS is going to sue if you over deploy (i'd like to see documented example of it) most likely.. they will make you buy the extra licenses. the evil bastards.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
The two national black events in a row must really irk the racists. How come they aren't talking about Martin Nigga King Day and the Inigguration?
I really don't care what he considered himself. I can consider myself a king, doesn't make me as such.
Their HR department obviously didn't do their job when employing the guy.
I hate it when incompetent people get into a job they shouldn't be doing.
No, my assumption is that novice administrators (who are not incompetant / don't lack training even in the theory of administration) would know exactly what to do.
That maybe so, but anyone who administrates servers should know this. If they don't, they're either untrained or incompetant in that field of work.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
I worked as an architect for Microsoft products, I can assure you that I did price & worked on implementing AD, Exchange, OCS, SCCM, SCOM, ... implementations on customers ranging from 15 to 225.000 clients. The acquisition costs are usually neglegible (capex), the operational costs are what drive decision makers towards a solution (unless you are talking Oracle databases that charge insanely high rates for licensing, but let's not go into that).
Besides, when you have an agreement with Microsoft, they practically give you away the OS licenses & CAL's for free (academic agreements & volume agreements - depending on the skills of the negotiators at your purchasing department). And even if you don't, the list price for W2K8 Standard Edition is 600 euros (that would be about $750). Heck, that's what any consultant charges for a single day of work & what it will cost you just to have a single meeting on the Samba 4 subject with any knowledgeable person. So no, the license cost is not an issue in any environment that has more than 50 PC's.
I have no particular beef with what you are saying however I'd like to give a warning about just converting peoples machines over without doing a full investigation how that person works.
Although you might deem marketing to be unimportant there are specific applications which marketing uses for analysis such the statistics software called SPSS.
Also when my GF (who works in marketing) tried out Ubuntu for the week she was constantly frustrated because it ruined her work flow. For example, although the ability to add comments to a PDF may not be important to most of us that's how she reviews work. So now she couldn't do her work.
I believe this is now being added at some point but it highlights that even if the employee tells you what programs and functions they work with they might forget a small detail which it important to doing their work.
It's this type of thing that you have to be absolutely sure that you're not going to disrupt, because if you do then it's going to be your ass on the line and you'll be to blame.