Single login server for windows and Linux

["James D. Parra" <JamesP MusicReports com>]

Hello,

What is the best method to have one central Linux server handling login
authentication for Linux and windows machines?  

What I would like to achieve is;

1) Provide only network server logins for Linux boxes and have no local
accounts on any Linux machine.

2) Have /home/$USER reside on the centralized Linux login server and not on
local machines.

3) Ditto for windows machines (I know I can achieve this with Samba for
windows clients, unless there is a better way)

If anyone has this type of environment set up, I would greatly appreciate
your help and advice.

Many thanks in advance,


James