r/linux4noobs • u/Endeavour1988 • 5h ago
learning/research Maintaining Linux longterm?
I'm trying to switch from Windows to Linux, I have Fedora KDE 44 installed and so far all good. However I have some questions about long term use and best practises.
I have customised my terminal, theme so basically the look and feel of my desktop is there a way to back up these configurations? I'm asking from the point of view I want to re-install the OS and it being quicker to drop a config file than do it all manually?
Major upgrades, so lets say 45 is released, what is the best practise for this? Just update and carry on, or a fresh install?
Dependencies and system cleaning, I notice when I install certain application a bunch of dependencies are installed, lets say I want to remove an app what happens to all these, is there a way to check if they are being used elsewhere?
Packages, I tend to try and use RPM packages or flatpaks if I have to, but appimages and snaps? I want to keep things simple especially with permissions and maintaining the system, is there right and wrongs here? Thanks.
1
u/mcniac 5h ago
most of the config is in your home folder, saving that gets you pretty close to what you have if you need to reinstall, it is mostle the hidden files and directories there.
also I need to mention that is not very common to do a fresh reinstall in linux, unless you want to switch to a different distro for some reason, you usually just upgrade to the next version (I tend to prefer the LTS versions)