It’s a really unfortunate set of circumstances that you need to run a Microsoft product for authentication in order to have a reasonable experience with the Microsoft operating system.

Especially because that Microsoft product (AD) is usually the hardest thing to integrate with from other operating systems; and is contingent on owning all user accounts (and usually means you have to use their email systems and file sharing systems).

Quite a lot of lock-in for a base level of user experience.

But I guess that’s OK if you are a shareholder. :)

My workplace MacBook has zero issues with working on AD-based network...

That's a very modern advancement, was not the case in 2014 (ask me how I know).

I definitely wouldn't discount the amount of effort that Apple has put into that.

Try doing it with linux or with OSX Mountain Lion.

Yeah, I bet it's been a lot of work. But that just underlines my point - you can't expect people to reinstall their school computers if it requires changing their entire network to something nobody there understands and the users (teachers of subjects other than computers) don't want it.

The thing is, people (admin and users) are quite happy with the MS stuff - it's not perfect and costs a lot, but it mostly works without too much setup work.

The solution then is to just give Microsoft control and money? For eternity?

Nah. I’ll pass.

I detest ecosystem lock-in like this. :)

Especially from foreign entities.

Oh no, that's definitely not a solution, but at least until someone comes up with software that is at least comparable, Microsoft is what we're stuck with.

I saw a topic come up on macsysadmin that you might be interested in: https://www.reddit.com/r/macsysadmin/comments/w6tt99/sysadmi...