I'm planning on getting a new motherboard/processor, etc for my main box and want to move my current stuff down to my linux box that is running suse 8.1. I'm wonding how hard it is to change hardware like that? Will linux totally choke because its so hardware dependant? Will there be a long, complicated process involving rebuilding the kernal or some crazy stuff i don't know how to do (If you ask me, computers should be smart enough you shouldn't have to rebuild the kernal yourself)

Worst case, will i have to reinstall suse? How much work will that be, assuming i want to keep all my files settings and programs, etc?

Thanks.

If you have the stock suse kernel installed it will have support for all the major motherboard chipsets built in already, the only time you might have to compile a custom kernel is if the chipset on the mobo is so new that the suse kernel dosn't support it, and even then it will still work, it just won't work as fast as it should.