IMHO thing an MS Linux could really add for SME IT teams is.
1) An easy way to join a Windows domain. Being able to use AD user auth and Windows file sharing with AD groups that is as easy as it is on Windows server would remove a major scare factor for Windows admins trying Linux. I hope this could be implemented by contributing to SAMBA and being a wrapper for SAMBA rather than a reimplementation. I have had frustrating times with Linux unmounting Windows shares and having to reboot to get them to remount.
2) Training. MS have a well trodden path for learning to be an MS admin. Bringing it to Linux would surely help more people test-the-waters.
Red Hat's sssd already makes this trivial. You can join a Windows domain from the Fedora "first run wizard" or via a simple "realm join xyz.tld" command. It works pretty well mostly. You get AD integrated logins and SSH/sudo access and can use AD groups for access control just like normal groups. Kerberos SSO to Linux boxes works fine etc.
AD is all about group policy, logins are merely table stakes. If you want to distribute firewall rules to every machine in your arg AD is the way to go. Ditto for forcing updates (or preventing them), and any other manner of mass configuration. Then there is also centralized logging and auditing.
Linux has most of this in an ad-hoc fashion, but the key benefit comes from the centralization.
SSSD makes joining AD easy for any linux. Suse has integrated it into Yast and it's super easy. There are also tons of linux training initiatives.
The simple fact is alot of Windows admins are incurious or set in their ways. It's true for Linux as well, but not as true.
1) An easy way to join a Windows domain. Being able to use AD user auth and Windows file sharing with AD groups that is as easy as it is on Windows server would remove a major scare factor for Windows admins trying Linux. I hope this could be implemented by contributing to SAMBA and being a wrapper for SAMBA rather than a reimplementation. I have had frustrating times with Linux unmounting Windows shares and having to reboot to get them to remount.
2) Training. MS have a well trodden path for learning to be an MS admin. Bringing it to Linux would surely help more people test-the-waters.