Im sure this has been asked before, but I can't seem to find much info on it, maybe Im searching for the wrong terms

Im currently running Kubuntu 8.04 and have been since it was released. I have only really used Ubuntu or Kubuntu since I started using Linux apart from the odd test install of other distributions.

However I now want to properly try some other distros probably Mandriva or Fedora. My problem is that I have Kubuntu setup just how I like it and use other apps and scritps that required some setup, such as lmsensors/superkaramaba, mediatomb, samba, a script to control fan speed. Ktorrent, Knode, Xchat, crontab, and klibido/stunnel.

The thought of having to set all these things up again has prevented me moving to a new distribution so far, especially lmsensors, crontab and the fan speed script which I couldn't setup off the top of my head I would probably need a good half day to follow the guides and get them working again.

So, is there any easy way to migrate things like this to a new distribution and have them up and running quickly? I know some of these settings are simply stored in the home directory, but other are not.

There really is no easy way to do this. Some distributions use different files and different locations for things. For example, Ubuntu has no /etc/inittab. Kubuntu 8.04 uses KDE3, while Kubuntu 8.10 uses KDE4. I doubt the config files are compatible, since they are very different beasts.

My suggestion, if you are happy with Kubuntu and just want to try out a few other distros, is to use something like VirtuaBox:

http://www.virtualbox.org/

and install the distro you are interested at, inside Kubuntu. That way you can test them and make up your mind before migrating your config (which won't be easy) several times (if you are considering testing several distros that is).

The "if ain't broken don't fix it" approach is always a good one, in my honest opinion

I guessed that would be the answer. The "if it aint broke don't fix it" approach has been the other reason for not moving. I don't really have any reason to move to another distro other that simple curiosity. I might just leave it a while longer

Thanks for the virtualbox tip, ill check that out.