Well, I am doing something similar now and best source of information I found so far is - Samba by Example - its most valuable chapters (ch. 1-5, 11, 15) describe some aspects of the mechanics of domain functioning. There's also a samba-HOWTO, but I bet you won't like it - too bland, too abstract.

What's pretty sure is that you can use Linux machine as a Domain Controller and Windows machines can login with accounts, stored on it. Not sure, whether it is possible or not to login to Linux machine via Linux Domain Controller.

Well, I am doing something similar now and best source of information I found so far is - Samba by Example - its most valuable chapters (ch. 1-5, 11, 15) describe some aspects of the mechanics of domain functioning. There's also a samba-HOWTO, but I bet you won't like it - too bland, too abstract.

What's pretty sure is that you can use Linux machine as a Domain Controller and Windows machines can login with accounts, stored on it. Also, http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/winbind.html states that

"Winbind uses a UNIX implementation of Microsoft RPC calls, Pluggable  Authentication Modules (PAMs), and the name service switch (NSS) to allow Windows NT domain users to appear and operate as UNIX users on a UNIX machine."