Centeris, the company that integrates Linux, Unix and Mac into Microsoft's Active Directory, often a lifesaver for mixed environments, has changed its name to Likewise Software after its flagship product and, while it was at it, announced its first open source project, Likewise Open.

Likewise suggests that organizations replace their homegrown and DIY solutions with its Likewise Open enterprise authentication and it has posted the source code so Linux vendors can integrate it into upcoming versions of their operating systems.

Red Hat and Canonical, the Ubuntu company, are supporting it and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is going with it.

Canonical expects to offer Likewise Open in the April release of Ubuntu 8.04, its next long-term support (LTS) distribution. Red Hat will be shipping it with Samba in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2.

The widgetry offers a single user name and password on both Windows and Linux; Active Directory security settings can be applies to individual Linux machines to enforce password complexity and aging; there's single sign-on for SSH and PuTTY; and credential caching for offline logon if you temporarily lose connection to the Active Directory Domain controller.

Likewise was opened up at the same time the company upgraded to Likewise 4.0, which supports 500-odd Active Directory group policies for managing non-Windows systems; Linux desktops; Active Directory management from Linux and Unix machines via the Likewise console; and links cells to shared attributes across organizational units.

Likewise and Novell are pushing Likewise 4.0 to manage SUSE Desktop machines. Pricing come in at $249 per server license and $49 per workstation license.

Gerald Carter, a senior Likewise developer and a long-time member of the core Samba development team, has been named project director of Likewise Open.

See www.likewisesoftware.com/open and www.likewisesoftware.com/community.