I'm looking to transition from Bazzite to a more standard operating system, possibly Debian since it's been working well on my Mac. However, I'm concerned about reinstalling all my software manually. Is there a way to make this switch without having to back everything up to an external drive? I don't have enough spare storage for that approach.
4 Answers
If you're used to Bazzite, Fedora would be a good choice since they're closely related. But if you want something that's more straightforward, I'd suggest looking into Mint or Ubuntu instead.
One way to make things easier would have been to create a separate home partition from the start. If you're set on switching now, maybe try creating a new partition, if you have some space available. Just make sure to back up what you can there and select custom partitioning during the OS install to avoid losing your backup.
Check out the migration resources available online! There are some helpful tips that can guide you through the process. Just keep in mind to make notes of all the software you currently use, and when you do install the new OS, just copy your home directory back. Try to keep the same username to avoid permission issues.
You can't really switch between completely different distributions without a full reinstall. Unfortunately, that's just the way it goes.
Yeah, for sure! Starting with separate partitions really saves a lot of hassle later on.