Remotely mount *nix $HOME dir from Windows

Have you tried Samba? It has a [homes] section in its config file that is meant to do exactly what you need - sharing out home directories to Windows client machines.

What you want is (roughly) roaming profiles. Roaming profiles turn the local copy of the Windows user account into a carbon-copy of what is stored on the server; when the user logs out, the changes are copied back. In this manner, the account is kept "in sync", and the user can log into any other machine and receive all of their documents, changes, etc.

In the past, to get "Roaming Profiles", you would need a domain controller and a SMB mount to attach to. Given that you've already mentioned being behind a firewall, this might not work. ErikA is right in that Samba would be the traditional solution here; as it will provide you with both of these requirements.

That being said, using Roaming Profiles is fraught with peril. I have seen way too many profiles "implode", leaving a mess when the user logs in the next time. Some people have had good luck with it, never encountering any kind of issue, but at my work, I have yet to see someone go more than 3 months before suffering some kind of corruption in the profile, leading to the system creating a completely new stub account with a new desktop environment, and all the files are in the old account, inaccessible except by an Administrator.

So if roaming profiles are out of the question, either because you don't have a domain controller, or you don't want to use Samba, or you do use Samba but you have profile issues, then you're left with doing "alternative" connections to a file server. This might not be so bad, especially if you can get users to keep everything in a single folder that represents a mount point back on the server. "My Documents" was, and I believe still is, capable of a redirect to a server elsewhere; and this might be your way to deal with the situation.

Windows 7 provides support for NFS; however, I don't know if it will support a user's profile in the way you're thinking. If you're planning to have people access data over the Internet, then this is out of the question - security is minimal at best, and a wide-open door for abuse at worst. If you use it, you'll get a drive letter, so that's a start.

You might want to look into OpenAFS as well, which has a matured Windows client and provides all kinds of nifty features, including kerberos authentication (which Windows supports out of the box). This might be more to your liking, especially if you have *nix-style servers on the back end. And it supports record locks, something critical for sharing Microsoft-style files between users. This means shared Access databases and Excel workbooks won't corrupt themselves.

In the end, I think you'll probably mount their home directory as a drive letter, using whatever service you decide on, and do a redirect of My Documents etc. to this drive. This will probably be the sanest solution for you.

Good luck, and come back and post a comment about how it worked out, what your decisions were, why the decisions were made, etc. so everyone can share.

You may be able to do what you need with the Subsystem for Unix-based Applications, from Microsoft. A version can be downloaded for XP (maybe Vista?), and there is a newer version included with the Vista Ultimate & Enterprise.