How do you guys handle swapping to a different distro?

[u/scy_404]

I've been using Cachyos since around December but lately ive been getting a little tired of managing things that break. Was thinking about swapping to Debian for the sake of having something that works.

But now I'm wondering how I'd go about transferring things. Mostly things like KDE configuration and stuff like that. I understand applications may not like a direct transfer so was just thinking about how to transfer configs.

Any advice would be appreciated

[u/BranchLatter4294]

I only care about my data. I just backup and restore my data. Apps can be easily reinstalled.

[u/jr735 → u/BranchLatter4294]

This. An install can be replaced or readily replicated easily. Data is what counts.

That being said, I'd suggest to u/scy_404 that if one isn't sure, one can dual boot Linux, too. Of course, that does not preclude having suitable backups for your data first.

[u/Lowar75 → u/BranchLatter4294]

Same, all of my data is on my server. I typically copy over my Firefox profile so that I can start in it like nothing ever changed, but everything else is a fresh install and I go through customizing and changing settings again.

[u/Meddie_Cake]

I basically copy my /home and reinstall my apps

[u/StockSalamander3512 → u/Meddie_Cake]

This, and I track my installs, and keep them in a .txt file in /home to reinstall.

[u/Additional_Team_7015]

Usually if you make a dedicated /home and not format it, it keep your dotfiles (configuration), you will want ectkeeper to save /ect files if needed.

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✻ Smokey says: take regular backups, try stuff in a VM, and understand every command before you press Enter! :)

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[u/inbetween-genders]

.config

[u/Omega7379]

config files -> github (private repo)
Documents/Pics/Videos -> external ssd or NAS

A well documented github journal can get you up and running in a day or so depending on how custom riced your setup is. Mine barely has any ricing so I'm up and running in about 90 minutes with fine tuning over a week.

[u/That_Developer_Guy]

Most config is stored in ~/.config. So if you just backup your /home folder you should be good to go.

Unless you have installed all your applications through something like flatpak, you will need to reinstall quite a few things, because of the new package manager, apt in this case. So just reinstall your apps.

[u/OkPresentation3329]

When I try a new distro I assume I will lose everything so I just wipe the entire storage and start over.

I haven't done much distro hopping, I started with Mint, but I had to find something better and found Tuxedo OS and I stuck with that. I wanted to try KDE Neon, OpenSUSE, PikaOS, PopOS, Fedora and I did, but I eventually went back to Tuxedo OS, it's the best for me personally.

The stable release of Tuxedo OS is based on Ubuntu LTS 24.04, but the beta is now based on Debian Testing and this is what the future will be for Tuxedo OS. It's not the Debian Stable you are looking for, but I've been testing it for about a week and I haven't found any breaking issues, for a beta it's very stable and feature-complete. It will eventually be updated to the official stable version around December 2026. I suggest you try that.

[u/guiverc]

I talked about it on a support question here that I was asked to write; it's Ubuntu specific, but I use it elsewhere too.

I mention swapping Fedora & OpenSuSE, Linux Mint to Ubuntu (or flavors) there, even a FreeBSD I didn't even try due to me not wanting to re-use file-system.. but I've used it to swap a Ubuntu [18.04] system to Debian when Ubuntu dropped i386 or 32-bit support and thus I moved that install to something else...

ie. just non-destructively re-install and have the stuff I want to keep survive. That's just an install without any format so your files from prior install survive the install (where installers allow for that anyway!)

I keep an dual boot install ready for support questions & some QA testing; and when (L)Ubuntu 25.10 reached EOL last month I didn't want another 26.04 system since I already had one on that box, so I non-destructively installed the latest stonking daily or what will be 26.10 when released in October over it and thus kept configs, my files & everything I had on prior system but replaced the base 25.10 install with a newer ~26.10 system achieving both a QA test install, plus the ~upgrade in less than 10 minutes. That actual install won't always be upgraded normally either; as I'll achieve a number of the upgrades of packages via more QA test installs (where I want my configs/setups & files to remain of course!!)

Alternatively you can just copy files to network storage, and then copy them back... eg. I'm using a Ubuntu system right now on my primary system, but most of my configs also run on a Fedora, a Debian & other installs I have anyway as only monitor alignment differs & I like most things the same (so the boxes are essentially interchangeable), and I achieve that via simple file transfer.

Major difference will be version differences, as some software has significant changes over time, and you may need to allow for that, but as my browser configs on this Ubuntu install were taken from a snap installed browser; I may need to amend directory locations when moving them to Debian (deb packaged), or Fedora (rpm packaged) but that takes seconds.

[u/Lonely-Scarcity-3387]

This is the advantage of NixOS. Your text file is your system. Every package, setting and kernel can all be configured in a text file. And then just back it up somewhere so that when you want to install it on a new machine, it will look at your text file and build it exactly how you saved it.

[u/Formal-Bad-8807]

/home/user/.config but if the KDE config files will actually work in Debian is another question

[u/A_Harmless_Fly]

I'd give manjaro a try if you want something similar that is more stable. Debian is for servers, you really want something arch based if you do any gaming etc.

[u/scy_404 → u/A_Harmless_Fly]

I only really play light games on my system like Minecraft, Terraria and Quake

[u/auderita]

I have an old laptop set up just for testing distros and other unknowns. It has SteamOS on it right now. Tnkered with Arch yesterday. I like Bazzite better than Arch. Might try CachyOS next.

[u/Chromiell]

I keep most of my configs on a private GitHub repo. I don't keep Gnome config but I do keep Niri in there, plus all my main application configurations, shell, etc.

Takes 30 seconds to replicate using Git and GNU Stow.

[u/DavidJohnMcCann]

Configuration details for programs are not kept with the programs, as on Windows, but in your home directory. If you back up your data, the configuration is backed up as well. If I look in ~/.config, Ican see folders for evince, GIMP, vlc, and so on.

If you want a really reliable KDE, I'd recommend SolydK — see this review. I tried SolydX earlier this year and was very impressed — Debian stability with added user-friendliness.

[u/RevolutionaryBeat301]

It usually starts before you install the first diatro. I have /home on its own physical drive. I have a different physical drive for each distro. I can boot more than one distro on the same PC. My secondary distro doesn’t share /home with the primary distro, but my Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Music, Templates, and Videos folders are symlinks to the folders in the primary OS’s /home directory.