i have 2 partitions , one for root another for home for zorin 16, if i backup my home then install zorin 17 onto the original partitions then restore my home partition will i need to reinstall all my programs and will my home partition be fine ?
When I have to wipe-and-reinstall, this is how I do it:
I also keep all my personal files (spreadsheets, PDF files, text files, graphics files, etc.) on a separate USB drive, formatted to NTFS... that way, if a catastrophe occurs and I have to bug out on short notice, I can just grab that USB drive and run... and I can plug it into any computer capable of reading NTFS (which should be pretty much any computer, no matter if it's Windows, Mac or Linux) and I've got access to my files. Doing it this way also means that even if I completely wipe the OS drives (I've got three drives mirrored via ZFS), my personal files are intact.
Since you already have a dedicated partition for /home all you have to do during the installation of ZorinOS is specify which partitions of the disk you want to use for it. Leaving the /home partition intact means that all your files will be preserved, and all you'll have to do is mount it to the root partition later. Making a separate backup copy is always a good idea just in case, however.
You will have to re-install any programs, as those are typically not inside your home directory. Here's a thread with more details on how to use the manual partitioning during installation:
If you want to replace your Zorin 16 installation i would first backup (on a seperate medium, thats not connected during installation) any documents, scripts and create a list of needed applications. Than you pick your / as installation path and don't select another partition for /home. After installation you delete all files and directorys from your old home partition, that's not directly from your User. So you keep direcotries like documents, downloads, music, pictures etc. who contain your data and delete old configs (hidden folders mostly). Than you move your files from /home to your seperate home partition (without the empty user directory like documents), edit fstab to mount your home partition under /home. Afterwards you install all applications and swap/add your scripts and profiles like from email client or shell.
You can format your home-partition during isntallation and pick it as new /home but than you only have the backup copy of your data but don't need to config fstab mountpoints.
That's my way for a clean installation.
Edit: And its easier if you create the same user / username (so your $HOME path is the same).
And for your question yes you need to reinstall your programms but in the long run it's better than to have missmatching configs and orphaned files making programms malfunction. Don't know how good the updater is and when it's live.
The key element is that you backup all the hidden files in your /home folder and backup any bookmarks you have.
It is possible to keep your /home folder as is in that you would mark the /home folder during install but you would not format it. Always best to make a full system backup, including data by creating an image of your drive using rescuezilla.
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