According to its homepage,
the Fedora Directory Server can be downloaded for free and set up in less than an hour using the graphical console.
They missed a minor detail. It is probably true if the OS is RHEL or Fedora. One hour my ass. Shoehorning this piece of [software] on any other OS is an exercise not for the impatient ones. One a freshly installed SuSe 10.1 system, it took me well over 2 hours of compiling and symlinking to get FDS and its components installed.
Initial impressions
After all that, what do I get ? If I took Sun ONE Directory Server and change the logo, that’s what I would get - without the installation pains. Granted its been only a few hours since I got this thing to compile and install properly and was only able to populate it with some basic data - I am so far not impressed and not sure why I need to “re-evaluate” the cod ebase I have been using for over 5+ years ..
FDS does have the multi-master replication and NT Password syncing feature - to give it its due credit. Not sure if the trouble is worth it - particularly when you have a LOT better systems for password/account managemen and synchronization.