Making an OS Switch

Recently, I got unsatisfied with my operating system.
Now, don't get me wrong, I love Ubuntu. It's fabulous. And from what I understand, the 15.04 release has kernel version 4 (which is kind of a big deal, from what I also understand).

But, I've been using it for years. And Linux is, well, free. Free, guys. To anyone. At any time. As many times as you want.

So, I switched to Debian. Sadly, though, two weeks before the full release of the new version, so I will upgrading this weekend, but that is an easier process.

Switching operating systems, though, is kind of a big deal (unless you just do a new partition, but that still requires a bit of work). It requires sorting and filing and saving and going through files and folders and settings and programs.
What do you need to keep, what do you need to re-install, or find new programs to use.

And, where you've shoved everything you wanted to save.
Yeah, that was fun.

Actually, it was. You see, I have an external hard drive (except it's actually in my case, so it's not technically "external", and I took it out of the "external" case, but that's still what it was purchased as), and I shoved everything I wanted to save over to that drive.
All of my printables, all of my music, all of my extra LibreOffice fonts, and all of my photos, and the random bits I've downloaded.

And then I made a list.
Which said all my Desktop items went into a folder named, well, "DESKTOP", because I'm imaginative. But I also noted that I made a "Rhythmbox" folder, instead of adding that specific music to my "music" folder - because I want those specific files to go directly back into Rhythmbox, instead of having to find them again (lazy file storage, for the win).

I also made a list dictating what programs I knew I would need to either make sure installed with Debian itself, or what I would need to go re-find, such as Chrome and JRE (Java Runtime Environment) and JDK (Java Development Kit).
[Luckily, Chrome's sign-in feature allows you to, if you have a Google account, be signed in and basically save all of your settings, plug-ins, accounts, etc, and have those available to you and ready to go as soon as you download and/or sign-in to the browser itself.]

Installing Debian itself was a lot of waiting and downloading and updating - you "install" the basic parts, and it pulls the rest over the internet.
Which is fine.
After it's installed, it's a matter of, well, getting settled in. And a huge advantage of that is having files ready to go, knowing what you need to install to make it as seamless of a switch as possible. Being able to feel "home" as soon as possible.

Which, for me, means having my preferred music imported into Rhythmbox, my Chrome settings and bookmarks and accounts ready to go, LibreOffice and GIMP.
As well as random settings...such as an awesome desktop image, such as this one.

And, as with most desktop backgrounds, credit goes to Google Images, and I do not remember where I got it, but you can find it and its variants with this search.

The main thing I recommend, though, is the lists.
Know what you're saving, and where you are putting it.
And know what you will need to re-install after installation of your new operating system.
It really made the transition pretty much seamless.

Yes, it took me a whole evening, but that was going from the decision that, yes, I will be switching, to a virtual box to play around with it, to building a bootable USB drive, and installing the OS itself, and updating everything.

And you can bet I'm updating on the 25th (when Jessie comes out) - and yes, it's in my planner.

~Havok