Migrating From SuSE to (K)Ubuntu

[Hodgins Family]

Good morning!

>I have friend who is running one of the later SuSE distros who is
>interested in switching to Ubuntu/kubuntu-desktop.  He wants to keep
>his home directory intact, but is concerned that the various config
>files that come with kubuntu-desktop aren't going to be 100%
>compatible with what he currently has.  I think that this is a valid
>concern, since I did a similar setup for someone else recently, and
>the Ubuntu KDE environment looked like total crap with the SuSE KDE
>settings that were in that user's home directory.  Fonts were shot,
>the background images obviously didn't work, etc.

1) Copy all the config files that are in the home directory to a new folder 
(/home/myfriend/SUSEconfig_files). These are for a "just in case they are 
needed later". You might want to consider copying files out of /etc as 
well -- just in case!
2) Copy the entire /home/myfriend folder elsewhere (CD, DVD, network to 
other computer). This is just to keep the personal files intact
3) Either i) install Ubuntu, formatting the whole drive along the way --  
blowing away the /home along with everything else OR ii) if the home is on 
another partition get rid of the SUSE config files in the home directory 
(leave the files that you copied into /home/myfriend/SUSEconfig_files alone) 
and then install Ubuntu without letting it create a second /home partition.
4) Clean up by getting the personal files back onto the hard drive and 
decide what config files in the /home/myfriend/SUSEconfig_files can be 
dumped/reused, etc.

HTH

Rob