To see your currently used user directory go to Help – About – Details.

To override the default settings in the file netbeans-install-dir/etc/netbeans.conf you can create a directory etc/ in /home/myhome/.netbeans/6.0 ( with 6.0 being the version number of your NetBeans installation). Then use the default netbeans.conf file from netbeans-install-dir/etc/netbeans.conf as a template to create a user specific settings in /home/myhome/.netbeans/6.0/etc/netbeans.conf (see How do I make my custom startup parameters permanent? ).

For instance you could change you user name (used in templates):

# Options used by NetBeans launcher by default, can be overridden by explicit
# command line switches:
netbeans_default_options="-J-client -J-Xss2m -J-Xms256m -J-XX:PermSize=64m -J-XX:MaxPermSize=200m -J-Xverify:none -J-Duser.name='My Name' -J-Dapple.laf.useScreenMenuBar=true -J-Dswing.aatext=true --fontsize 14"

(… or use Tools -> Template Manager -> User configuration properties .)

Read more about startup parameter for Netbeans IDE in FaqStartupParameters .