Roaming user configuration

[Timothy Spear]

Hi,
    I am trying to create a mixture of a thick and thin client setup on my
network. Which would ideally also work with laptops. I would like to have the
users home directory (which includes menus and everything else) roam with
him/her as they switch computers.
    As I see it, I have two choices. First xdmcp configuration. This means I
need a large server and is very network intensive. Second choice, use a central
LDAP and NFS mount the home directories and take advantage of the local thick
machine resources. For laptops, I am thinking of a boot and shutdown script to
update the designated user's profile on the main NFS server if a connection is
available.
    Does anyone have a better solution? Or has anyone implemented my second
idea?

Tim