The file ~/remote/.desktoprc is automatically sourced when you log into any
of the desktops. Since ~/remote is actually sshfs'd to your home folder on
NFS, this means you can put your common config or preferences in it and have
them be shared across all desktops.
If you want to get a feel for what you can do with your .desktoprc, try out
some of these useful ideas.
If you want your application settings shared between the desktops and login servers, you can just copy them over with a line like this:
cp ~/remote/{.bashrc, .bash_aliases, .vimrc, ...} ~/
Alternatively, if you have a dotfile repo, you can either clone it...
git clone https://github.com/username/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles
~/.dotfiles/my-install-script
... or just link to it in your NFS homedir, if you have it there:
ln -s ~/remote/.dotfiles ~/.dotfiles
~/.dotfiles/my-install-script
We install HexChat as a desktop IRC client. You can automatically configure it to connect to your favorite networks on startup. For example, to automatically connect to the OCF's IRC server, try this snippet:
mkdir -p ~/.config/hexchat
echo "
v=2.12.4
N=ocf
L=7
E=UTF-8 (Unicode)
F=30
D=0
S=irc.ocf.berkeley.edu/6697
J=#rebuild
" > ~/.config/hexchat/servlist.conf
For more complex configs, you always have the option to edit your server list
from the GUI, then copy and paste servlist.conf into your .desktoprc.
The XFCE4 terminal emulator installed on the desktops comes with keyboard shortcuts by default. If these bother you, you can disable them like this:
echo "
ShortcutsNoHelpkey=TRUE
ShortcutsNoMenukey=TRUE
ShortcutsNoMnemonics=TRUE
" >> ~/.config/xfce4/terminal/terminalrc