Complete Noob Question regarding Future FC#

[ckiraly]

Greetings All -

I am looking to put FC3 as my main box, but I had a few questions before i do so. If I do so, I'm going to do a clean install. (Format the whole thing).

1) If i'm using Thunderbird for email, how can I back that up so I can use it with FC3.

2) Once I get FC3 up and running, when FC4 (or whatever it will be called) comes out, will I be able to upgrade without doing an install? I don't want to constantly go through re-installing every few months with a new version of FC.

Anything else I should know about ahead of time (I would be using an ATI 9700Pro video card...)

TIA

- Chris

[carbo18]

For Thunderbird
You can simply copy the mail folder from windows to CD or whatever and just copy it in linux. Here are the folders locations in each operating system. (Taken from the Thunderbird Site )

The Profile Folder

On Windows 2000/XP, the path is usually %AppData%\Thunderbird\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.sl t\, where xxxxxxxx is a random string of 8 characters. Just browse to C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\ and the rest should be obvious.

On Windows 95/98/Me, the path is usually C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.slt\.

On Linux, the path is usually ~/.thunderbird/default/xxxxxxxx.slt.

On MacOS X, the path is usually ~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/default/xxxxxxxx.slt.

Note: Thunderbird is capable of handling more than one user and thus, more than one profile. The path examples above refers to the default profile that is automatically created when you start Thunderbird for the first time. You can manage any number of profiles by using the Profile Manager.

%AppData% is a shorthand for the Application Data path on Windows 2000/XP. To use it, click Start > Run..., enter %AppData% and press Enter. You will be taken to the "real" folder, which is normally C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data.

As for upgrading... it is possible to dofrom the new version. But I would still suggest you back up your critical files, files you don't want to lose and it's a good idea to have your /home directory in a separate partition, since these are where your personal files are saved by default and you are sure they won't be affected by the upgrade.

Hope this helps.