[Samba] General Samba question

[jzemanek at sas.upenn.edu]

Greetings to all.

I am currently a bit of a newbie in regards using Linux and Samba. I have 
worked for several years in the IT/digital divide sector of the nonprofit world 
(particularly in regards to utilizing used and refurbished hardware). I am have 
a couple of CompTIA certs. (A+ and N+) and some experience administering 
Windows 2000 Advanced Server. 

Anyway to my question....

I am currently working with a teacher at an inner city public high school. 
Recently the school allocated a significant portion of its budget to building a 
state-of-the-art computer lab. The room contains 30 machines (Gateway Pentium 4)
loaded with Windows XP. 

However, the school did not a purchase a server for the classroom. The teacher 
desperately wants a server in the classroom to centrally hold all student 
classwork. He also wants to implement user level security on this server as 
well as centralized domain security for all the work stations. I have procured 
a Pentium III computer (500 mhz, 256 MB RAM) to be used as a server. Right now, 
I have the choice of purchasing a copy of Windows 2000 Advanced Server or 
loading it with Linux. My choice will be based price, ease of set up, and ease 
of administration. 

So the question...can a Linux machine loaded with SAMBA be used as a domain 
controller for a group of Windows-based workstations? If so, how difficult is 
the set up and maintenance of the domain? 

Any thought and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Regrards,

Jon