Can't RENAME a file like Windows can?

Question

Real easy. I just need to rename a file from this:
A2Capital.jpg
to this:
a2capital.jpg
I do this in Windows and of course every OS I have used since the 1990s at least. Why can't this be done in OS X 10.4.9?
I am on a network drive of a Windows Server, if that makes a difference. The error I always get is
The name a2capital with extension ".jpg" is already taken. Please choose a different name.
Oh, come on. This is an easy one, right?
It happens whether I click the filename or if I Show Info.
Mac Pro Quad 3.0 Mac OS X (10.4.9) I usually run Windows XP

Answer 1

OS X's filesystem, HFS+, is case-preserving, meaning
it stores the upper and lowercase characters of
file/folder names, however it's not case-sensitive
(unless you specify it as such when formatting the
disk in Disk Utility). In a case-preserving
filesystem, MyFile, mYfILE, myfile, and MYFILE all
reference the same file. There is no need to be rude
to Kappy, he was just trying to help. Here's some
reading if you want to learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HFS_Plus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparisonof_filesystem
s#fn_35
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case-preserving
Note: HFSX in 10.3 added the ability to format a disk
as Case-Sensitive. If you didn't reformat your disk
when you got your Mac, it's Case-Preserving, not
Case-Sensitive.
I see what you mean by case sensitive. I think Macs and Windows are similar in this regard. All that means is that if I type in a command to run, or I type a filename to launch, the OS is forgiving if I say "BLaH.JpG" for a file that is really "blah.JPG" -- if it's on the hard drive like that already.
You bet. But in both Mac and Windows it seems, I can rename the file to whatever mixed case I want and get no errors.
I only have this problem on the network drive,
which like I said is a Windows 2003 Server share.
Because your question is in the context of renaming a
file on a remote Windows share, then all the talk of
whether HFS is case-sensitive or not doesn't matter.
I'm assuming the share you're connected to when
trying to do this rename is NTFS? Macs use Samba to
connect to Windows shares. I've never tried to do
what you're doing through a samba share. It could be
Samba, or it could be how you have your share set up.
It does look like a Samba idiosyncrasy. I have used Samba before in FreeBSD (a relative to Darwin/OS X) but I would have no idea if that was the case there.
Samba has traditionally had some oddities, bugs, and problems due to the nature of open-sourcing a Windows custom secret network system. But Macs do claim to be interoperable with other networks and systems. This can't be unusual. Lots of people need to connect to a Windows share.
Ha, to be honest, I don't think I would even try to setup a NFS share on the Windows server, and there aren't any UNIX servers at this location.
Who heads up the Samba stuff for Mac OS?