Windows itself is only a small part of the business ecosystem. The real behemoth is Active Directory and everything that integrates with it. Creating something that powerful, complex and user-configurable is not in Apple's DNA.

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aetherspawn 17 hours ago | parent [-]

If Apple can pull off a workflow where they give you a free online user directory and natively allow people to “login with iCloud for business” on managed devices, they’ve nailed it.

That’s 99% of the way there and fully within their capability.

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mopsi 17 hours ago | parent [-]

The idea that Active Directory is merely a user directory is one of the great misconceptions. Windows Server with AD offers incredible amount of things out of the box, from Windows Deployment Services to capture, manage and deploy PC images over PXE, to Certificate Authority to manage and issue and auto-deploy certificates, to print server, file server, web server, hypervisor, virtual desktops, and a huge number of other features and services, all centrally managed and linked with each other, with a well-established track record of providing backward compatibility for decades. Whatever I set up today, I can expect to still be using in 2045.

	▲	aetherspawn 16 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes and that’s why Windows is a behemoth, but honestly how much do users actually need that stuff? Most 365 cloud deployments are incredibly simple, and now Apple has an opportunity to make a solution that leaves all that cruft behind and focuses on roaming/zero trust/cloud native.
	▲	Hizonner 16 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Whatever you set up today, your users can fear they'll still be using in 2045.