I want to upgrade Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 20.04. I have a disk with the new OS. I have been told I should back up everything in the /home directory. I am shown either 91GB or 97GB there. The Disk Usage Analyzer lists the folders I put my personal files in (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos) totaling about 7GB. When another computer with similar usage was upgraded three years ago from 16.04 to 18.04, a 32GB USB stick was used. Is it really necessary to keep everything in that directory? I don't know what most of that is. The computer is weak and old and slow, with recurrent internet connection problems. (The ISP technician replaced all the cables and said the problem is in the computer itself, and I should get a new one.) I'm hoping it will work better after discarding whatever might be cluttering up the hard drive. Is there anything I should be careful to save? Should anything be disabled first? Is there a way to copy a list of all the apps I have, so I can select the ones I still want? Is there anything else I should know? Thank you for any help.
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The only, single most important files to backup are your personal documents, pictures etc. These can never be replaced if lost.
All the rest is less important. The operating system is the least important of all. It can be downloaded for free, and each time you download it anew, it will have improved. Apps can be installed and removed at will. Configuration can be redone if needed.
One caveat may be archived mail that you downloaded and deleted from the server. How and where that is stored depends on the mail application. When using Thunderbird, that mail will be stored under the hidden .thunderbird folder. However, if you care preserving archived mail, you probably know how to handle that.
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