What is missing from Ubuntu?: Manageability

A recent blog post on planet.ubuntu.com, argues the one thing that is missing is manageability of the Ubuntu system.  I couldn’t agree more with this post.  In the post the author argues the problem with Ubuntu adoption in business is not how shinny things look, or how well the software works in the cloud, the problem is management of systems.

A little background here:  For the last 4 years or so I have been an endpoint management consultant (laptops/desktops/severs).  I have clients that manage anywhere between 50 desktops and 150,000 desktops.  For Windows desktops there are numerous companies that allow you to manage those machines and reduce full time equivalencies (FTE’s).  Some examples are:  Altiris, Landesk, Kace, etc.  Canonical has created its own solution Landscape instead of working with the existing companies to get their product (Ubuntu) supported.

What really stands out from this entry is this section:

And so, Microsoft continues to win on the desktop. Not because an individual PC running Windows is easier for most people to use, but because its easier to set up Active Directory to work with Outlook and Exchange than it is to roll your own directory service with the tools available out of the box on Ubuntu. Bug #1 will never be solved until directory services and authentication are integrated into every aspect of Ubuntu.

And he couldn’t be more correct.  Until there is a true competitor to Active Directory, Exchange, Outlook, and the MANAGEMENT of the machines Ubuntu will not succeed in the Enterprise.

Take a look at the blog and all the blueprints that have withered without focus in regards to the issue:  (List taken from the blog)

• Turnkey identity management
• Identity management reference/test config
• Default LDAP DIT for user and group management
  
• implement simply DIT for Ubuntu server
• Make Ubuntu authenticate against Network Authentication services
• Single User Interface to Join and Participate in Microsoft Active Directory Domains
• Architecture of a directory infrastructure
• Enable user login to leverage a directory infrastructure
• Identity management and network authentication in Hardy
• Integrated Active Directory Logon
• 389 Directory Server Inclusion in Karmic
• Directory service included in Ubuntu Server
• Configuration of services to integrate with a directory
• Enable services to leverage a directory infrastructure
• Open Directory Service package
• Integrate OpenDS in Jaunty
• Search for a published printer in an Active Directory
• EdubuntuUserManagement
• Easy active directory integration for EDUbuntu
• An integrated directory server for Ubuntu-server
• LDAP Integration
• Ubuntu Server MS Integration Proxies
• Seamless integration into a Windows domain environment (Active Directory)
• Make a LDAP Server as easy to install as a LAMP Server
• Managing the directory
• System Security Services Daemon for Ubuntu
• Make LDAP the default configuration backend for Ubuntu
• Create new tasksel tasks for common server use cases
• Free Identity Policy Audit infrastructure for Ubuntu as the freeipa.org project
• Authentication/Authorization/Access control/Accounting/Auditing services in the cloud
• Extend mail stack in Ubuntu-server