I disagree with this notion. Enterprise GNU/Linux environments with a configuration management system like Salt are easily on par (if not superior) to Enterpris

I disagree with this notion. Enterprise GNU/Linux environments with a configuration management system like Salt are easily on par (if not superior) to Enterprise MS Windows environments in all regards. Add a 389 or Samba4 domain controller on top and off you go. The difference is obviously that you need people who can administer such systems. 389 is just as part-time admin friendly as AD, but Salt actually requires you to understand a little bit about the computers you are administering. Will the 10 person SME run such an setup? Unlikely. Can a 100 person SME that employs four MSCE run such a setup? Yes, but you only need two RHCE or LPIC-2 admins now (for vacation and somesuch). Those are rare, I know, but they will scale to 1000 persons, no problem.