Is there any way to synchronize mate-desktop settings among some computers?
Let me explain: If I change on PC1 some caja settings, wallpaper or Panel layout, that changings could be automatically applied on PC2 and PC3 by Internet ou local network.
Is it possible?
Are any individual user files stored on the separate machines? Or, are they used like network machines where they are simply portals to wider network/internet resources?
Yes, using SSH.
You would have to copy your config files (layouts are located in /usr/share/mate-panel/layouts) in the appropriate folders on PC2 and PC3 using the scp command and grab your caja settings using dconf-editor.
Then just SSH on the other PCs and enter the commands to apply the wanted settings.
For instance:
gsettings set org.mate.background yourwallpaper.png
mate-tweak --layout yourlayout
gsettings set org.mate.caja.preferences yourpreference yourvalue
If you've got a NAS, it can be VERY helpful to keep config files etc there and use rsync to update the other machines. Not for the bandwidth savings, but just because there are so many little bits and pieces that it quickly becomes difficult to keep track of them all unless they're in a script.
(This is especially true if you tweak your theme at all, and for things like custom UserChrome for Firefox, etc. And it makes configuring a new machine (or VM) very easy).
And if you've got a REAL server, using git rather than dumb filecopying gives you history as well, which is always nice. The only downside to that is it's slightly more work migrating the files from the repo to whatever random stupid places (cough panel layouts cough :P) they need to be, but you have to do that anyway.
My initial question of how you used those machines was because, if they are just used in a manner akin to network machines where nothing is actually stored locally, then you could go the whole hog and turn them into actual "skinny client" network machines for real using something called LTSP.
This has very much matured in recent years and now uses a very simple method of deployment called "chrootless". This is where you have Ubuntu Mate installed on the machine you intend to use as a server. Then, you set up all of your other machines on the network to boot from the network instead of their hard drives.In other words, they don't need to have anything installed on their hard drives. Indeed, they don't even need hard drives.
When they boot up, they are each served a network version of the desktop setup on your server into their RAM including, obviously, all preference settings. All users "home" folders are actually stored on the server. So, when they save files, they are actually saved to the server. In all user respects, their desktops look and feel exactly like the server. But, they can have all kinds of limitations placed on them in terms of permissions to change stuff.
You can find out about LTSP here: