I've been using Dropbox and symlinks to keep two Ubuntu computers in sync, for years.
The setup is a bit fiddly, because some links go TO the Dropbox folder, and some come FROM it, depending on how things are set up, but I haven't had any problems.
Now, I want to simplify things, but I'm a bit concerned about existing directories. Specifically, Desktop, Downloads, and Pictures.
My thinking is that it should be ok to do, on both computers, this:
me@computer:~$ ln -sfn /home/me/Dropbox/Desktop /home/me/Desktop
But maybe Gnome treats Desktop as some sort of special directory. I tried it with the Downloads directory, and the system won't allow me overwrite it, even with sudo.
Any ideas?