[Samba] Can Samba + (OpenLDAP & Kerberos) completely replace ActiveDirectory?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Mon, 2012-01-09 at 10:47 -0500, mikel king wrote:
> I am sure this pops up on the list ever once in a while. I have
> inherited a LAN that have a large amount of Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Linux
> and of course because bean counters have to use financial apps that
> only run on Windows. My long term goal is to install some sort of
> central management system and really feel that AD is not in my best
> interest considering that 90% of the 300+ computers are not Windows
> based. Unfortunately the 20 or so Windows machines are running mostly
> Win7 and there are some 2k8r2 servers in the mix somewhere. 
> Does anyone know of any good how-to, best practices/guidelines sites or documents?
> Thoughts? Suggestions?

Well, for the question in subject - 
"Can Samba + (OpenLDAP & Kerberos) completely replace ActiveDirectory?"

Emphatically - NO.

At least if your using Samba3.

Use Samba4 and you get Active Directory for free.

-- 
System & Network Administrator [ LPI & NCLA ]
<http://www.whitemiceconsulting.com>
OpenGroupware Developer <http://www.opengroupware.us>
Adam Tauno Williams