Re: Is a Universal Desktop Experience possible?
On Friday 10 July 2009, Rob Owens wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 04:24:03PM -0700, SteveM wrote:
> > 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?
>
> I think NFS mounted /home should work, as long as you're using the same
> distro on each computer. Sometimes different versions of programs have
> differences in their config files, which is why you want to stay with
> the same distro if you're going to NFS mount /home.
>
> By "NFS and a shared /home", I suspect you are running a local /home
> and then having an NFS share as something like
> /mnt/home-on-main-server, for the purpose of accessing files. If you
> mount that share as /home, you'll also get all your customizations by
> way of the hidden files/directories in /home.
Yes, this was my configuration. Within a few days of multiple KDE
sessions sharing a single $KDEHOME I had problems. Your point on
versions is well taken and I can't be sure that wasn't a factor. Still,
I suspect this configuration isn't supportted. For instance, many apps
store window locations in pixels. And many apps keep files open while
running, leading to lockouts or races. Have you made a common $KDEHOME
work for you?
>
> Lastly, if some of the systems are old, you might consider using LTSP
> and booting them as thin clients. That's what I use at home.
I expect config file problems regardless of the disk's location.
>
> -Rob
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