this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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Linux
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Partitions.
Many distros will partition your disk as
/
,/home
, andswap
.If you want to, when installing a different distro, you can manually format and install the system to
/
and not format/home
but flag it to be mounted as home.This can cause issues with configuration files if you change to a distro that has older versions of some programs.
Oh it certainly can! I haven't done it like this in a long time. My hopping days are all but over and the main things I need to backup are music, photos, and books. As long as I have them on some external drive I just wipe it all and start over. Still, though, the option is there.
Upgrades/downgrades can always cause issues, but more often than not you're totally fine, especially during upgrades. I tend to declutter my home a little too. E.g. I keep the configurations for Firefox and Thunderbird but delete their cache, for Inkscape I may keep my custom palettes only. For a lot of Gnome tools, I just delete all the configuration, especially for stuff that I only use once a month. However, the major issue during that process for me is that accidents happen occasionally.