Please point me in the direction of a better alternative. Thats right, there is none. There isn't anything close to the level of control, syncing, and versatility of exchange and active directory. These things work great when implemented properly. There are just a lot of IT people who lock them down improperly or go overboard with restrictions, or just plain set up things wrong. Its not hard to implement them properly. Its just that a lot of IT people from the big IT rush in the late 90's/early 2000's that only pursued it because it was the new cash in job have no idea what they're doing. People from that same time that actually understand and have a passion for computers can do a much better job, but they seem outnumbered by huge numbers of incompetant IT people.
