[NTLUG:Discuss] NIS no longer developed?

[Chris Cox]

Neil Aggarwal wrote:
> Hello all:
> 
> If I look at the Linux NIS homepage, it looks like the product
> is no longer being developed.  Is that true?

Probably not developed since it is complete.  Where do you think it
needs to go?  Granted an good automounter still needs
some development work, but that's a side tool often integrated
with NIS deployments... but not a part of NIS.

> 
> If so, what replacement are people using to centralize
> password management in a mixed environment (Linux and
> Windows)?

IMHO, NIS works, and the others don't.  Oh.. you can
spend several months getting OpenLDAP to work, but
certainly not across the enterprise (all Unix/Windows/etc.)
and the schemas are under HEAVY flux and will continue
to be so for at LEAST another year or so (that from
Gerald Carter).  Vendors are still trying to 0wn LDAP
instead of working on interoperability.  If you're
all Linux... then you're choices are wide open... if
you're a mixed environment, then I prefer NIS + Samba + PAM + ssh
for single sign on and single platform account management without
the primary NIS security flaw (exposed DES encrypted
passwords).

Anyone who has gone through the pains of LDAP conversion
more than once (due to the schema changes) will tell you
they're sick of the changes.  Would be nice to see things
settle down, but even then, will it integrate seemlessly
with Microsoft Active Directory??

LDAP... new technology, many security flaws, immature.
Anyone recommending this over NIS hasn't really analyzed
the tech too closely.

I probably stand alone in this boat in the Linux community.

Regards,
Chris