I am setting up a system (ubuntu 12.04) that uses ldap, pam, and autofs to load users and their home folders from a remote server. One of the options for login is sitting down at the machine and starting a GUI session. Programs such as chormium (browser) that preform many read/write operations in the ~/.cache and ~/.config files are slowing down the GUI experience as well as putting strain of the NFS server that is causing other users to have problems. Ubuntu had the handy-dandy XDG_CONFIG_HOME and XDG_CACHE_HOME variables that can be set to change the default location of .cache and .config from the home folder to somewhere else. There are several places to set them, but most of them are not optimal. /etc/environment pros: will work across all shells cons: cannot use variables like $USER so that you can't make users have different new locations for .cache and .config. Every users' new location would be the same directory. /etc/bash.bashrc pros: $USER works, so you can place them in different folders cons: only gets run for bash compatible shells ~/.pam_environment pros: works regardless of shell cons: cannot use system variables (like $USER), has it's own syntax, and has to be created for every user