Centralized user management: what is best?

[Mauro Condarelli <mcondarelli@mclink.it>]

Hi,
I have a small (<8 hosts) lan with mixed Linux (debian) and winXP hosts.
Up to now I managed the debian hosts manually (copying /etc/passwd, /erc/groups, ..., manually), but that is a real pain.
I did recently suffer a severe breakdown so I reinstalled most of the machines.
At this point I would like to setup some centralized way to manage the whole network.
I would like to manage:
- users (<20)
- file servers (2)
- printers (3)
- firewall (ADSL, fixed IP, currently managed with shorewall/webmin)
- mail (currently on a separate host, but I plan to move it to the firewall)

In the past I used NIS, but that is UNIX-only.
I know there's OpenLDAP, but I never used it.
Probably some other package is available.

Question is:
Given the needs, what is the "best" solution?
Should I bother at all? (the main reason I want to install some management is that I began having a lot of permission problems when I moved hard disks from one host to another; I know how to fix them, but I would like to avoid re-doing all that next time...).
Can someone point me in the right direction? I would like to avoid false starts.


Thanks in Advance
Mauro