Is a Universal Desktop Experience possible?

[SteveM <newsdebian@jetcity.org>]

Fellow Debians,

I have seven systems scattered around the house.  I thought a NFS and a 
shared /home would solve my file sharing problems but it doesn't help 
with desktop app configs.

What I'd like is a Universal Desktop Experience, i.e. same kicker applets, 
same konsole profiles, same amarok playlists, same xpad postits, etc, 
whereever I login.  I'm a KDE type, but afaict the issue affects all 
DE's.

My goal doesn't seem unreasonable and I expect others share it.  If that 
group includes you, what's your solution?  Is there a non-web-based UDE?

thanks,
steve