And on the other side, their technology works like nothing else.
Windows hosts AD which talks to IIS and Exchange attributes are in AD and your file permissions are linked to AD user accounts and you can query it with LDAP which means your RADIUS devices can talk to it and your Certificate Server links with your domain, and your workstations access shared folders on the network which mirror files over WAN links using DFS which is AD integrated also, as is DNS which links with DHCP, machines are locked down by group policies which apply even on laptops, Exchange supports ActiveSync to Windows Mobile which has SQL Server Compact which can sync to SQL Server Express for your desktop and SQL Server for your main server which is monitored by MOM and running on HyperV and Virtual Server, and SQL Server Enterprise for your cluster, which has AD integrated permissions and is running on Windows Datacenter edition hosting a site on ASP.Net which serves to desktops using ClickOnce which builds into IE which is rolled out by WSUS which sits on Windows Internal Database which reports using SQL Server Reporting Services which is published in your Sharepoint site which handles your Excel spreadsheets with Excel Calculation Services along with your documentation which is all searchable through Search Server Express which is SQL Server backed and understands Windows file and website permissions, as do documents in Office when you use Office DRM to say who can change them and track versions and you can see if people are online when typing their names as they turn into smart tags which link with Office Live Communicator so you can IM people and SIP call them and email them which will be tracked in CRM using the plugin to Outlook which you're accessing as a published app from a terminal server connected by a windows integrated VPN through an AD integrated ISA server ... and the whole glorious lot is variously scriptable with COM, WMI, vbscript, VB for Applications, and plugins developed with Microsoft Visual Studio.Net and person-decades of documentation.
One Microsoft Way is right enough. No other software ecosystem is anything like the same scale or as usefully well integrated, from a business POV.
Linux on the desktop is almost laughable in how far from the Microsoft business reality it is. Every little annoyance, horrible error message or instability is worth putting up with because of the integration of ... everything.
And it's so cheap, too. All it costs is your company's soul in proprietary data format hell. Forever. But look on the bright side - few people even realise their company has a data soul, and it's not like there's any choice.
Windows hosts AD which talks to IIS and Exchange attributes are in AD and your file permissions are linked to AD user accounts and you can query it with LDAP which means your RADIUS devices can talk to it and your Certificate Server links with your domain, and your workstations access shared folders on the network which mirror files over WAN links using DFS which is AD integrated also, as is DNS which links with DHCP, machines are locked down by group policies which apply even on laptops, Exchange supports ActiveSync to Windows Mobile which has SQL Server Compact which can sync to SQL Server Express for your desktop and SQL Server for your main server which is monitored by MOM and running on HyperV and Virtual Server, and SQL Server Enterprise for your cluster, which has AD integrated permissions and is running on Windows Datacenter edition hosting a site on ASP.Net which serves to desktops using ClickOnce which builds into IE which is rolled out by WSUS which sits on Windows Internal Database which reports using SQL Server Reporting Services which is published in your Sharepoint site which handles your Excel spreadsheets with Excel Calculation Services along with your documentation which is all searchable through Search Server Express which is SQL Server backed and understands Windows file and website permissions, as do documents in Office when you use Office DRM to say who can change them and track versions and you can see if people are online when typing their names as they turn into smart tags which link with Office Live Communicator so you can IM people and SIP call them and email them which will be tracked in CRM using the plugin to Outlook which you're accessing as a published app from a terminal server connected by a windows integrated VPN through an AD integrated ISA server ... and the whole glorious lot is variously scriptable with COM, WMI, vbscript, VB for Applications, and plugins developed with Microsoft Visual Studio.Net and person-decades of documentation.
One Microsoft Way is right enough. No other software ecosystem is anything like the same scale or as usefully well integrated, from a business POV.
Linux on the desktop is almost laughable in how far from the Microsoft business reality it is. Every little annoyance, horrible error message or instability is worth putting up with because of the integration of ... everything.
And it's so cheap, too. All it costs is your company's soul in proprietary data format hell. Forever. But look on the bright side - few people even realise their company has a data soul, and it's not like there's any choice.