I asked my tech support person about this.
Active Directory by itself is not the cause of this. My
company uses it over a large swath of the country, but I still work
with files and programs stored on my PC hard drive until I move or
copy them to the network.
But the system does allow roaming profiles that enable a user
to work on a PC anywhere on the network. They do this by moving
your directories out to a network drive. It's transparent to the
user that the PC is dealing with files on the network, but that
doesn't fool RH, or whatever it is that causes RH to choke when a
project (.xpj and the rest) isn't on the local C drive.
In other words, you think you're checking files out of source
control onto your own hard drive, but they're just going somewhere
else on the network.
Some managers believe a network location is the best place to
keep everything safe. They can have an automatic backup on network
drives, to protect against loss of data (How often do you back up
your hard drive?).
They can control network access easier than access to a PC,
making data more secure from intruders, compared to letting you
keep it on your hard drive. And you can work from any PC on the
network where you have access.
As I understand it, Active Directory does not require this
structure for everything on your hard drive. You could have network
locations for roaming but still keep some directories on a PC hard
drive. Talk to your IT folks.
Anyone who knows more than I do should jump in with
corrections or clarifications.
Harvey