Questions[user-data](ubuntu)

I'm new to Ubuntu and recently started using it on my PC. I'm going to replace that PC with a new machine. I want to transfer my data and settings to the nettop. What aspects should I consider?

Obviously I want to move my data over. What things am I missing if I only copy the entire home folder?

This is a home pc (not corporate) so user rights and other security issues are not a concern, except that the files should be accessible on the new machine!

Please take into account that the new machine is a nettop that doesn't have an optical drive and doesn't allow me to hook the old SATA disk into it, so any data transfer must be handled via home network (I can have both the old and the new machine turned on and connected to the home LAN) and I have an USB thumbdrive with limited capacity (2GB).
This sounds like it might limit the general applicability, but it would in fact make it more general.

I want to move Zeitgeist data for a user from one computer to another. He uses Gnome Activity Journal, and it would be nice to move his history.

At present I have several machines on the home network which are a mixture of static desktops and laptops. Its getting unmanageable for me and impractical for all of them to have local home directories, settings and security so I am considering using LDAP for common user management and NFS for shared home directories.

What happens when one of the laptops are out on the road? The home network is unreachable so will auth fail and fall back to local storage? Also, when the laptop returns is there a way to resync the home storage to the NFS server?

I was wondering if there was a standard location for storing user level application data. What I mean by that is stuff like Firefox bookmarks, Skype message history/password, etc. I'm asking because I am not sure if I should go with home directory encryption vs full disk encryption.

I work with multiple computers for various reasons. I want to keep those computers in sync configuration wise. I already have a VCS based setup that allows me to manually update configurations on multiple hosts. But i'm looking for a way to do this automatically.

What I'm looking for is:

• A way to sync configuration (vim, ssh, evolution)
• keeping certain directories in sync (like ~/Documents)

This is all user configuration and not system configuration. At times the workstation can be offline or behind a slow link, so being able to detect that and act accordingly is a plus.