Hi All, I'm a fairly experienced Windows user and want to set up a PC with Linux. I've been reading a lot about it trying to figure out the best distro to start with (currently it will likely be Ubuntu). If you use a lot of software with Windows, it's usefull to reinstall Windows every now and again to clear out the rubbish and reset settings which have gone awol but it's a real pain trying to reinstall all the software you previously had running. So with Linux, what if you start with a distro but after a while decide you don't like it and want to try another one? Would this totally overwrite your existing system? I'm guessing it would. So you'd lose settings you may have made to browsers, etc? Presumabely you'll have to reinstall/find all the drivers again? What about documents and data you've created? I notice members recommend different distros to different people. How do you get experience of them all? From totally new system installs each time? Ian

Most distros have a livecd version that you can run off a cd without installing to the hard drive(You can usually use the livecd to install as well)thats how You can check out any one You want.As far as reinstalling over top of an old installation.usually doesnt work so well(but it is doable-one way is to create a seperate partition for your home directory and reuse it with the next install,messy though-).Best bet is to back up your data to cd/usb drive either often or when Youre about to reinstall.

I understand about the live cds but I wouldn't have thought that using these would be enough for you to get to know the system very well. That can take a several days at least, if not weeks. Will all Linux software install on any distro? The point I was trying to make is that each time you install a new distro you have to start all your computing from scratch, no? So if you backup your data to another drive (or whatever) will all other Linux apps be able to read it or do diff apps have proprietory formats? Ian

All apps are the same,the only big difference in that regard,between distros,is each may have older or newer versions of common libraries and/or programs(so if say,You wanted a newer version of a program,the libraries might not be available yet,so it wouldnt work*cough*debian*cough*(not that it isnt my favorite lol!),among other things.Yeah,as far as getting into a dist using a livecd its really just for seeing what things are there,driver support,etc.before You take the plunge,but LiveUsb can resolve most of that,as they allow You to store your files and such,and otherwise functions like a livecd(no install to hard drive).A better alternative,but not everyone has a spare drive around,so it wasnt as common(although its alot better than it was,and most distributions have one available).

Personal settings, such as browser preferences, bookmarks, documents, and so on will be saved in your user directory (folder), in the /home/username file. If you've partitioned your disk so that /home is a separate directory, then all these will be preserved no matter how many times you re-install or switch distros. (just remember to not format the partition during a re-installation!). If you didn't create a separate partition during installation, then backup your user directory, do your re-installation, and then restore the user directory to /home (being sure to also create a user of that name). However, in reply to the first part of your question, no, you do not have to re-install Linux simply to refresh it after a period of use. That's absolutely unecessary!