haley, I have a single Win2000 server running NDS/eDir. I can't wait to get rid of it even though it runs fine. Why? Security holes. Servers shouldn't need to be treated like the bass-turd child of the NT lineup: XP Home. In process of a side-job where a guy got nailed with some worm and can't login to his XP Home computer at all. Businesses don't need the same thing with their corporate data.
I'll be installing Netware 6.5 on this server very soon. This version (finally) offers Windows PDC and BDC emulation. "Look ma', no Active Directory", nor any Windows for that matter. In fact, I've dumped all the Novell clients on my network in favor of a domain-only login and use Netware for file access exclusively. Best of both worlds.
I know I'm off topic now, but it just frustrates me to no end that people's data and the security about that data is taken so lightly by Microsoft. They're quite reactive to security, no proactive.
I hope they don't can the Novell LAN you have. They'll enjoy the higher TCO of a Windows network! Server reinstalls, lost data, people who "know Windows" and do stupid stuff. I've seen it happen too many times.
Novell offers great security and the comfort to know that the company's data is safe on the server. Netware 6 and their new Linux offerings are top notch. Forget the old 3.x/4.x networks--those are a thing of the past. Too bad they don't make operating systems for home use. Oh wait, they bought SuSE...
I was even thinking of replacing Explorer.exe with ProgMan.exe (remember that one?) to negate ill effects of running IE on a server until I can replace that Windows 2000 install.
Thanks for listening, I feel better now.