[ale] Linspire chairman thinks desktop Linux is futile

[Tim Meanor]

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 9:17 AM,  <krwatson at cc.gatech.edu> wrote:
<snip>
> There is considerable pressure to use the campus Microsoft Active Directory to solve the problem.
>
> At first we thought it would be no problem. Joining a Linux box to Windows Active Directory is a known process so how hard could it be. Well for one it doesn't work. I realize "them be fight'n words" so let me elaborate before the tar a feathering begins.
>
> After many, many, many long bouts of hacking, trial and error, googling (can you believe that's a word), and pulling out what little hair I have left. We have come to the conclusion that there is no easy way, if any, to join a Linux box to a Windows domain and then automatically mounting the user's home directory (NFS or CIFS). I'm aware of using local password and group files but we're trying to avoid the management nightmare we already have with keeping them up to date on several thousand machines. PAM_mount holds promise but so far no joy.
>

Quest Software makes a product that allows various flavors of
Unix/Linux to integrate into Active Directory:
http://www.quest.com/Vintela-Authentication-Services/

It costs money and is closed source, so it may not be an option, but
it's good to know that such options exist.  I've never used it, so I
can't vouch for it, but the demo I've seen looks pretty slick (of
course, most things look pretty slick in a demo).  Might be worth
checking out if you have a budget for such things.

-Tim


<snip>
>
> Keith
>
> --
>
> Keith R. Watson                        Georgia Institute of Technology
> Systems Support Specialist IV          College of Computing
> keith.watson at cc.gatech.edu             801 Atlantic Drive NW
> (404) 385-7401                         Atlanta, GA  30332-0280
>
>
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