[tbrownaw]

> Nobody uses Windows as a server OS

Which is why my employer really doesn't use Outlook/Exchange for email, or Sharepoint for the intranet, or IIS for the public website, or ActiveDirectory to manage logins and whatever else it does, or ....

Maybe you mean, "nobody uses only Windows as a server OS"? But even tho that would work for my employer (we also have Linux and AIX) and probably all large companies (including Microsoft?), I'm sure there are a ton of smaller ones it doesn't apply to.

[rbanffy]

> Which is why my employer really doesn't use Outlook/Exchange for email, or Sharepoint for the intranet, or IIS for the public website, or ActiveDirectory to manage logins and whatever else it does, or ....

If you really have to live with all that stuff, I'm deeply sorry for you. I use Exchange and AD and it's bad enough.

[roel_v]

Oh come on, seriously? I'm not saying it's the best thing ever, but it works well enough for the majority of small businesses. There is nobody who is really inconvenienced by having to use AD (it's not like most people would even notice). At least it provides a default and standard authentication system, unlike the hacks I've seen where people use rsync to distribute /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow to all machines (and don't get me started on that piece of junk OpenLDAP, I have yet to meet the first person who could build a complete and working centralized auth environment with it.)

[rbanffy]

> I have yet to meet the first person

If you come to Brazil, I can introduce you.

[alrs]

Hi, I'm Lars.