I want to switch from an old Windows Server 2003 server with Active Directory to a simple Ubuntu fileserver in a kind of school building with Windows XP client machines, with a minimum impact to teachers and students habits. I want to make sure my approach is correct.
Before:
People logged in through Active Directory so that they got their personal configuration on no matter what computer (desktop icons, Outlook Express email account config...). Then they had been granted access to the corresponding directories on the server.
After (what I am planning to do):
People log in the generic User account (one user account in each PC; everybody uses every PC) and then try to access directories using a previously prepared list of shortcuts from the desktop. They enter their samba user and password and if it matches that directory permissions they access it.
This way they will have to set their email accounts in only one particular computer. Maybe with Thunderbird to have an easy email user management. And older messages will have to be backed up
Does this logging system make sense? Any other idea to simplify?
In the future, I plan to migrate printer sharing to Ubuntu also.