Here is how you can tell that stories get into people’s heads: if you ask people, “Are vampires real?” they will answer No. But if you ask those same people “Can vampires can be killed with a wooden stake?” they will answer Yes. That is why stories matter.

(h/t to Fred Clark for the vampire question)

In contrast, running an Active Directory domain with a thousand users is the kind of terrible that is like hitting yourself in the forehead with a hammer.

Then you have a bunch of Windows administration tools, an ecosystem of them, and their entire business model is finding people who are running large networks and selling them soft rubber pads for the business end of the hammer. Then you have Active Directory/Exchange consultants, whose business is to solemnly tell people to hit themselves with the blunt side of the hammer, not the claw side.

Over in the open-source world things are much better — which is to say, you can choose for yourself which side of the hammer to hit yourself with. You could even choose to hit yourself with the handle! Oh, and you have to worry about compatibility issues between the head, the handle, and the grip, but you can set up your own Red Hat-certified forge to make sure that you always have compatible heads.

Also, I hear Microsoft just introduced a new licensing system where you’re charged by the foot-pound.