That said, I note that a lot of the objections in the article have to do with "there used to be a GUI for this, but now you have to use command line". Real IT pros use command line anyway, because they can run batch scripts.
I don't want to discount some of the more reasonable items, though, such as not being able to move the user profiles database off of the server's boot drive. That should be fixed.
I've been in IT for a long time.For the most part, the people I've worked with are concerned with 3 things:
1. Is there a cheaper alternative?
2. Will it work reliably?
3. If you get hit by a bus, WBill, how hard are you to replace?
*Good* Apple people are hard to find. They exist, but they're not a-dime-a-dozen, either. So #3 is pretty well out.
Apples (from my limited knowledge) are totally reliable, but given their proprietary nature, will fail the first question every single time.
So, Apple will never get out of the box on a corporate wide scale. Not so long as there's a feasible alternative at a significant fraction of the cost.
And Heck, why would Apple want to? They're making a mint and have achieved a cult-like status among end users. They're the "Cadillac" of computing, as in "A Ford would get me from place to place reliably, but I paid twice as much so that I could own a Caddy that does exactly the same thing.". There's just no room for a mentality like that in a bottom-line drive corporate environment.
My $0.02 only.