While I was at LinuxWorld Expo last week (you can now read my full report on the show) I spent some time on the Centrify stand. Their product allows direct login from a Unix, Linux or OS X host into an Active Directory. As part of those discussions we talked about heterogeneous networks at the role of Linux in a modern IT company. In particular, we both agreed that there are very few situations where Linux is going to be used in an exclusive or ubiquitous installation - it's going to part of a wider range of hardware, operating systems and environments in use at a company.