> Spoken like someone who has never in their lives tried to do any of the things AD does in Linux.
Spoken like someone with identifiable personality disorder. Get evaluated and stop pathetically trying to hurt others when it is clear the deep anxieties are yours.
AD is only miraculous in that it is the one thing, the one and only thing among a vast many, that Microsoft got right. And the reason they got it right is that AD is LDAP and Kerberos. IOW, AD is a Microsoft-esque gui for LDAP and Kerberos. Really. It does not slice and dice, it does not blend; it is merely authentication and authorization. If you'd like, AD will auth Linux boxen users all day long. Anything else AD does is only germane to Windows.