I am using Mint but I would like to try other distributions to see which I like best. Is it possible to replace Mint with say, Ubuntu, to see if I like it better without erasing all of my data?

The simple answer is to have a separate /home partition, and not format it during re-install. This avoids most (not all) problems, but may also introduce some "wrinkles".
Different distros will use different packages by default (mplayer, gphoto, ...) Some may use different versions of the same package - there may be differences in usage, maybe not.

As some-one who regularly uses different distros, I don't use shared /home except in special cases, but I do use shared data partition(s) - especially my photo collection. Maybe videos as well. Then I just install what I need to access them.

Here is a good article about a separate home partition.

In order to move to using one, you will need to back up the data in your existing /home to external media (if it's not on external media, it's not a backup), do a "nuke-and-pave" install of Ubuntu, them restore the saved data.

I've been using a separate /home on all my bare-metal installs for several years. I second syg00's suggestion heartily.

Oh, and welcome to LQ.

The risk in using a shared /home (or installing and keeping /home) is that settings and config files often are not 100% compatible. Not between versions of the same distro and even less so between different distributions. I am sure this is also the reason that syg00 decided not to use a shared /home folder.

If you are smart, you store all your data and personal files in yet another partition or even better on an external drive with a good backup.

If you have all your data out of the home folder, it *is* possible to copy and tar your complete home folder and restore it if you go back to a previous distro.

My experience is that keeping the /home folder seldom leads to the desired results. And that installing a new distro alway requires configuration from the ground up. So you can equally well test it in a VM. Use Virtualbox.

jlinkels

I would never use a shared /home (that is, shared between two or more distros on a multi-boot computer). As jlinkels points out, that's asking for trouble.

I have encountered no difficulties in using a separate /home and changing distros. It's not something I've done often, but that computer over there (---->) has gone from Mint to Mageia to Debian with a separate home without issue.

If you want to be super careful, you can delete all the dot-config files, while keeping the other data, before installing that new distro.

Use KVM or VirtualBox and set up a virtual machine. Install various distributions in the VM to check them out and see which ones you like/dislike.

I agree with Dough G. Installing Virtual Box is a great way to try Ubuntu and other distro's so you can decide which one you like.

Give Debian a try. It's stable-

https://www.debian.org/CD/

Also go to distrowatch and see the top distro's in a list.
https://distrowatch.com/

Good Luck with your decision.

To help ease problems like this, I have a multiple partition solution.

For example, let's say I were to start off with Linux Mint, then I would have three partitions mounted at /, /home and /home/data. The data partition holds all my documents, videos, photos etc. etc.

If I want to try out another distro on bare metal (as opposed to the excellent idea of setting one up in a virtual machine), I create two new partitions for /, and /home and then also mount /home/data in the new distro.

In this way, / is for each distro's system files, /home is for each distro's personal configuration files, and /home/data is a non-distro specific partition that I share amongst all my distros so that they can access the data files.

It sounds slightly complicated, but it keeps things nice and easy for me. In case you might have been wondering, the reason that the / and /home partitions are themselves separate is due to the way I image/backup my partitions for ease of file or partition rollback (a separate issue).

1 members found this post helpful.

frank124c,

Welcome to LQ.

Try this:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-distro-37074/

As another multi-distro on bare metal person, I'll offer another vote for a partition containing shared data, but with /home on the distro's partition. My twist is a single boot partition from which I chainload each distro's bootloader.

1. Install distro with boot partition mounted at /boot and grub in MBR
2. Unmount boot partition and remount some place convenient (I use /mnt/Boot)
3. Copy contents of /mnt/Boot to /boot
4. Forcibly Install grub in distro's partition
5. Edit boot partition's grub.cfg to chainload each distro's grub

From boot partition's grub.cfg:

Shared /home among different distros is nothing but a mess in my experience. Better is a data partition structured like this - /data/$USER/(normal /home/$USER/folders). Then just symlink the /data/$USER/* into /home/$USER. No mixed settings, data stays the same. Easy peasy.