After doing a search this specific question has never been asked, i did look Ok here is the scenerio.

Dell laptop (dual boot XP, FC2)
Compaq Laptop (XP)
Desktop (Xp)
Gateway laptop (XP)
Compaq laptop (FC2)
Gateway Laptop (FC2)

I am trying to weigh out Samba vs using NFS and the Unix Service for XP (it does exist). I know Samba will let me share files fairly easily between the XP and Linux machines but what about my Linux to Linux boxes, i know i can FTP but is there a GUI method to browse your Linux boxes ? Also i know from my XP boxes there is a graphical method just through network neighborhood but when i go to the network icon in Linux it always shows blank under Windows Network !
The goal is to be able to just use a GUI between any machine to drag files with users that are not Linux Experts, including me. I would say i could just use a Hybrid of the two but that seems like alot of unnecessary processes running on those Linux boxes.

I always use NFS between my linux boxes.............

samba is fine, too. you just mount smb drive and browse it in any file browser in graphical environment.

So is a hybrid method of using both going to be my best bet ?

For a client mount, I like to use whatever is closest to native on the remote machine acting as the server.

For example, a remote Linux/UNIX server, is likely to function most effeciently using an NFS mount, while a target Windows server is most likely to function most effeciently using an SMBFS mount.

The tricky part is mounting remote filesystems to VAX/VMS machines, etc...

Have you tried Linneighborhood?
it can be gotten from apt-get synaptic (if you don't have synaptic you should)

LinNeighborhood does all the same things, but also allows you to browse over your win-boxes easier. Set-up is pretty easy too.

-Chase