superkret

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer_operating_system
Author: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Benedikt.Seidl
Data from: http://top500.org/stats

• install Linux
• install Gnome
• install some software
• reboot
• these icons are in my menu
• clicking on them does nothing

I know there's probably an explanation for it, which may make sense if you're used to the Linux ecosystem.
But to anyone else, it's just weird that there are buttons in my user-friendly GUI button-clicky desktop environment that make no sense, that I didn't install, and that do nothing when I click on them.

(Yes, I know I can hide them by editing a text file.
Or installing a menu editor that was designed for a version of Gnome from 20 years ago and still works most of the time)

Don't get me wrong, I used to be a Linux fanboy.
But after Admining in both the Linux and Windows world, I have to say: There's a reason Microsoft has a dominant market position in business.

AD is fucking awesome. And I don't understand why Linux is so...finnicky out of the box. There just isn't a unified default out of the box solution where you can click a button to create a domain controller and have everything in your domain tied together, from user rights on all clients, to file shares, to mailboxes.
This should be the strong point of Unix-likes, considering their history, but it just isn't.

On AD, you authenticate once when you log into your PC (which even works without contact to the authentication server). And then all the resources you're allowed to use are available to you. All the admin has to do for new users is assign them to the right groups in a GUI or with a script, and everything is taken care of.

On Linux, that just isn't the case (unless the domain is managed by AD, that integrates Linux clients well also). Linux is stuck in a time where your client was nothing more than a keyboard attached to a network device that connects you directly to the server.

And authentication is a mess out of the box. A password prompt should have the purpose of checking whether the correct person is sitting in front of the keyboard to do things. On Linux, you log into your client when you boot it. But by default, every time you want to access system resources which you are already allowed to use you need to authenticate again – from within the user account that's already authenticated. It makes no sense.

And don't even get me started on how awesome GPO's are compared to the methods you have to manage Linux clients.

Bonus question: With or without - ?

Seriously, my knowledge ends with:

• It offers a shitload of IP addresses
• They look really complicated
• Something about every device in your local network being visible from everywhere?
• Some claim it obsoletes NAT?

I get that it's probably too complicated a subject for an ELI5, so if there are good videos or resources explaining it in less than half an hour, feel free to share.