AD and Domain Servers are like a cancer that will grow metastases around your org, costing user and client cals all over the place, even for every desk phone if you're not careful. The only winning move is never to play their game in the first place.

I'm in a situation where due to staff skillsets and ease of management then GPOs are required. Local GPOs would be insane to manage across thousands of PCs

InTune/MDMs are finally eating away at the need for GPOs for most use cases. Someone already familiar with AD & Group Policy should be able to easily transition to InTune Configuration Policies. MS even has a tool now to import your GPOs.

There's still a few that don't have direct equivalents, but the list is growing smaller and smaller.

InTune is part of Microsoft's strategy to make everyone dependent on their cloud. It's like switching from Heroin to Fentanyl because you want to get off of your addiction.

Yes and that is a very common case. Windows is designed so that you barely have a chance to deal with your case without Microsoft components all the way. You would need a company with enormous resources to play catch up with the highly integrated and proprietary connections between each component.

It's a rigged monopoly and has nothing to do with a market economy. Once you have been forced to use Windows, you are doomed.

genuinely interested, what are the alternatives ? i know ping/forgerock and some old ibm stuff.

what is state of the art today that compares to ActiveDirectory (not talking azureAd - or whatever they call it these days) ?

Samba4 is the closest you can get. It is not as nice as ActiveDirectory.

> Samba is an important component to seamlessly integrate Linux/Unix Servers and Desktops into Active Directory environments. It can function either as an Active Directory Domain Controller or as a member server.

What's something that AD provides that this does not?

It certainly sounds like an (almost) drop-in replacement.

Samba4 covers core AD features like Kerberos, LDAP, and can act as a DC, but it’s not a full drop-in. GPO support is limited, management tools aren’t as robust (no full RSAT equivalent), and some advanced AD features (like DAC or ADCS) aren’t supported. Fine for smaller setups, but not 1:1 with enterprise AD.

Why not Okta? I know a company that uses it and no AD. (But they are mostly Mac)

AD is one of the few good MS projects. But you can use it with Macs and Linux just fine!

Just keep a couple of Windows servers running AD, and migrate everything else.

Apple doesn't recommend joining Macs to AD -- their implementation is awful, along with their SMB implementation.

But it is technically possible.

The new way is local account with synced password and Kerberos.