I have been doing fresh installs of ubuntu 11.04 to 12.04 and mint 11 to 13 and have been re-installing my drivers for brother mfc295cn each time. It has become mush easier with each new version because I have learned more over the time period but is there a method to retain drivers from a previous version? It is probably best to install the drivers with each new version simply because the drivers may be updated as well, correct? My only concern is not being able to print or scan under the new version and being an OLD Newbie, it might take some time getting back online. I am a bit confused about th LTS lasting 5 years for a version and new versions coming out every 6 months. Should you keep the old LTS and continue updating or install the latest version? How do you determine what to do? I just read a thread where they create 3 partitions /, home, and swap. How do you accomplish this and what is the reasoning for doing so?
I thank anyone who takes the time to answer these ?s

I think that the more recent distro tend to include all the drivers that most people need----also, I've read that some of the more recent kernels are including more drivers so no separate files are needed.

All this aside, you can certainly save specific drivers somewhere, and then re-install them after building the new system.---The default, however, should always be to use what comes with the distro---or from its repositories.

Thanks for your input and I agree with all said. Except when performing the install the MFC 295CN drivers can never be found so I have get them from the Brother website. I didn't think my printer was too old but maybe so.

1. LTS means that you can run the update tool regularly for the next 5 years and get bug and security fixes. Normally they're only available for 18 months. Of course, you can always install a new version any time you like.

2. The partitions are created when you install. I don't remember what Ubuntu does when left to its own devices, but the 3 partition setup is a pretty standard choice when you opt to set up the partitions yourself. The idea of having /home on its own partition is so that you can re-install a new version of your distribution and leave your data untouched. Some distros enable an update, some expect you to re-install. My /home has been going for over 7 years, alongside Fedora 1 to 10, a brief period of Debian, and now CentOS. The swap partition, which you've almost certainly been given, is used if ever the computer runs low on memory (rare these days) and for hibernating.

Thank you for the very clear explanation of part(s). Make sense the way you describe it. I attempted CentOS 6 but was unsuccessful in setting up my multifunction printer and backed off the distro. Have you experinced problems with setting up printers with CentOs? I was really really new at Linux at the time and a little better informed at this time. One question comes to mind, I always have done an install and then installed the printer/scanner drivers but is it possible to setup a printer using CentOS live CD. I will try again but thought I would just ask the question anyway! Thanks so much David.

It depends so much on the printer. My last one was HP and their drivers, plus hp-setup, seems to be included in every distro. Now I have a Samsung laser printer, and the company provide a huge package to set it up on Linux. I had to turn off SELinux, though.