Growl works how you describe. It's one of the reasons I like mac so much and I'm really happy to see it in 9.04. I'm sure with time the notification system will be improved.

I think you're mostly right but it's clear you're not using AD beyond an authentication system for your workstations. Start putting group policies to use and you'll quickly see that Linux/Samba can't compete.

Just here to toot my own horn I guess but I usually find the opposite to be true. I have rarely found support to be overly helpful in solving issues. I trust the Internet before I trust a support contract.

each employee has a CNAME that is their machine. Seems simple enough

On the late 2007 mac mini (at least) WOL is further made useless by the fact the machine must be booted once and then shutdown in order for WOL to work at all. This means, if power is lost and it comes back WOL won't work.

I don't have any trouble finding one for Windows

Why is this funny? It's true. How many CD/DVD burning apps have come out in the past 5 years but we still don't have a DVD ripping tool worth a damn?

Should probably be moderated as redundant

Can't do that

I'm sorry...but XP is stable. Ubuntu has some issues at times. I watched two of my co-workers reinstall their systems a couple of times in one week because of some serious issues. One was a system that simply crashed and wouldn't reboot. The other one was having no shortage of issues with X. Yea, a person could have done this or that to fix the software but bottom line is that Linux is NOT the panacea everyone makes it out to be.

As much as I want to agree with you (I dislike Linux as a desktop OS) I really don't think that the lack of costly software is the issue. Linux is free and that's the point. The software should be free too. The problem in my mind is the Linux desktop experience is frustrating. Full of "just do this little trick" to make things work. Linux is great if you're willing to tinker and constantly fix all of the minor issues that crop up almost daily. It's also great if you rarely venture out beyond web browsing, chat and email. You can't say that downloading your home video from a camcorder, editing it and uploading it to YouTube is nearly as simple as it is on say a Mac.

I've been in the Linux business for a while and I had no idea those two projects existed, thanks

Where is it defined that a day is 24 hours?

I was looking for an OpenSolaris post. I would also recommend OpenSolaris. Install it and with one command you can share out a bit of space via smb.

Solaris isn't free, it is a 90 day trial. I went to setup a file server using Solaris and quit after reading the fine print.

I tried OpenSolaris but it wouldn't recognize any of the drives in the system.