Hopefully someone will put me straight on this or advise a solution I have missed through lack of google-fu.
10 colleges (music and media production), 1000+ Macs, 10 mac servers, 3 Centos servers (from xserve to mac mini depending on the size of the college)
50 - 60 XP machines making up some of the lesser important areas of the colleges but with 10.6 server they join the mac provided domain with a few clicks.
I have tried a few times to find an easily deployable Linux distro to replace the Windows machines as the majority of them will do everything the students need and more, however there seems to be lacking a simple and dependable way to join any linux machine to a directory server without having to run through a vast array of config files and manually tweak them.
If there was the same sort of "wizard" to join OD or AD built in to the linux desktop as there is on both Macs (one or two clicks) and Windows (a few more) then I for one would welcome my new Linux based Overlords and embrace the linux desktop.
Regardless of whether it is OD, AD or some other LDAP server there doesnt seem to be anything established to make Linux Desktop in a small/med/large enterprise environment viable or attractive, the licence cost for us isn't a huge issue but the ongoing maintenence and admin ease of use is (who wants to be answering a barrage of support tickets when they could be gaming in their work hammock).
Build a wizard to allow easy integration into existing environments, then make it easy to manage and maintain them without learning 100 new command line packages and I think admins will take it more seriously with the knockon effect of introducing it/forcing it on to more people in the workplace which in turn may just inspire more home use.
For an enthusiast, Linux desktop is fine but for a sysadmin dealing with lots of non techie staff its a no go in so many ways, address that first and I think it may move forward of it's own accord.
