This is the role I use on my "Linux Workstation" systems. I don't have a desktop Linux system, but I do have a couple that I ssh to for work/development purposes especially when traveling.

about.md

Most of the recipes are just from the Opscode cookbooks. Exceptions or differences:

• ruby19 is a recipe that just installs ruby1.9.1-full, nothing fancy. Use Fletcher Nichol's rbenv or rvm cookbooks for those if you prefer.
• emacs24 recipe is one that I used to install Emacs 24 from a PPA before it was officially released. The actual recipe is attached to this gist, just put it in a cookbook named emacs24 as the default recipe.
• users recipe is one that just manages the dotfiles for my user, it's based on a really old version of Opscode's users cookbook.

emacs24.rb

if platform?('ubuntu') && node['platform_version'].to_f < 12.10
  apt_repository "emacs24-ppa" do
    uri "http://ppa.launchpad.net/cassou/emacs/ubuntu"
    distribution node['lsb']['codename']
    components ['main']
    keyserver "keyserver.ubuntu.com"
    key "CEC45805"
  end
elsif platform?("debian")
  apt_repository "emacs24-snapshot" do
    uri "http://emacs.naquadah.org"
    distribution "unstable/"
    components []
    key "http://emacs.naquadah.org/key.gpg"
  end
end

package "emacs24-nox" do
  package_name "emacs-snapshot-nox" if platform?('debian')
end

package "emacs24-el" do
  package_name "emacs-snapshot-el" if platform?('debian')
end

linux_workstation.json

{
  "name": "linux_workstation",
  "description": "Linux Development workstation",
  "json_class": "Chef::Role",
  "default_attributes": {
  },
  "override_attributes": {
    "virtualbox": {
      "urlbase": "http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.8",
      "url": "http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.8/virtualbox-4.2_4.2.8-83876~Debian~wheezy_amd64.deb"
    }
  },
  "chef_type": "role",
  "run_list": [
    "recipe[build-essential]",
    "recipe[ruby19]",
    "recipe[zsh]",
    "recipe[git]",
    "recipe[vim]",
    "recipe[users]",
    "recipe[tmux]",
    "recipe[emacs24]",
    "recipe[workstation]",
    "recipe[mosh]",
    "recipe[virtualbox]",
    "recipe[vagrant]"
  ],
  "env_run_lists": {
  }
}