We all know the basic configuration for a windows network with a windows server (or Samba Server) at the heart of the network with clients connecting to the server storing profiles and data folders on the server that's mapped to the clients at the time of log on.
All work is safely stored on the server so the clients dont really contain any data.

What would be the Unix/Linux equivalent model ?

Is there any kind of standard that we should adhere to in a small Linux network. I have a few ideas but not coming from an Industrial Unix background I would not claim to be an expert on this kind of deploy.

So I would imagine that NFS would be at the heart of it for sharing home drives and data folders.
NIS would probably be used for authentication ?

what else would be best practice.

I would be glad to hear anyone's ideas tips suggestions


Software/Hardware used:
Linux