Date Night

"You know, I don't even think Microsoft can survive in it's current form. It can't be so closed. Open standards are going to rule in the future, I'm telling you. I'm not even going to bother learning Active Directory." Scott is an Ed Tech evangelist for a local four-year college. He's also my boyfriend. Many of our most intimate conversations happen on the topic of pedagogy and best practices. I nod as he rants.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt to learn it - it's the most common directory system right now, and even if it won't be in the future, it's going to take a very long time to die out. You're talking, like, Futurama-in-the-future. Not next year."

Scott giggles a little at my comment. "You shouldn't be spending your time on that shit. You should really start moving Linux into your school. Fuck all that licensing. You can handle it"

Here is where we differ. I'm all for not paying for things and using open standards, however, in reality, we're not in a vaccuum. Perhaps I'm a little more war weary than he is, but while the concept is nice, the last time I picked a server OS, I stuck with Microsoft. I pipe dream about OS X servers for directory services and LAMP boxes instead of Whipple Hill or FinalSite, but at the end of the day, I'm not the only one making decisions, nor can we rely on all our technologies being Linux friendly - especially when it comes with dealing with our parents, donors and greater community.

I inherited a Windows School and a transition to Mac, if I decided to make one, would be very slow, more because of cultural issues than technical ones. Our vocal parent community is, oddly, a staunch set of "but that's what they use in the business world" users. They're successful folks, mostly in finance and real estate, and it's just what they know. They're successful and they want their kids to repeat that success, right down to an Operating System. I get it. It's silly, but I get it.

Windows Servers, if you want to be able to sleep at night and not stress when it's time for you to move on, is your safest bet if you have the means. Almost every host-your-own web 2.0 application ties nicely into Active Directory. Heck, even OS X server try to. Google just about anything having to do with a Windows Server, and I bet money that thousands of other sysadmins have had the exact same problem, and if even a small percentage post on a forum about it, you're likely to find a solution, or at least a nudge in the right direction. Windows Servers also means you're not completely irreplaceable, which, oddly enough, I usually see as a good thing. I like taking vacations once in a while, and I work hard for them. Linux would, probably, encroach on that for a while, even if it is just in a Professional Development and Training kind of way.

I don't engage Scott on this point. He's the more ambitious of the two of us. I made concessions to the man long ago. He's still fighting it. My energies, meanwhile, allow me to spend more time on the fun part of my job: teaching teachers and teaching students. Don't get me wrong, Scott is good at that too. However, I'm not Scott, and folks like him will be the leaders into this brave future he sees coming. I see it too, in all it's inevitable glory, but I'm content to be two steps behind.