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I am currently using Ubuntu 15.10 I will be upgrading to ubuntu 16.04, Since I have a lot of software installed, after upgrading will I lose all of them? If so is there a way to backup all these software before upgrading, so I do not have to download all of them again. Thanks :)

Prashant Kumar
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    As a general rule, once you upgrade all the software you have installed will still be there... and there is a good chance that it still works.

    There could be some exceptions where a package depends on a specific version of a library, that library is updated, and the function needed by the package was deprecated. But this is not the normal case.

     – juankvillegas Oct 01 '16 at 01:51
  • Since I am switching to LTS version from a non-Lts version, will that rule be applied? – Prashant Kumar Oct 01 '16 at 01:56
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    @PrashantKumar LTS is just a support model. There's nothing special about LTS releases aside from the name and longer support range. – TheWanderer Oct 01 '16 at 02:08
  • In my experience, upgrades do keep everything in-tact, but as any large upgrade, it could introduce minor annoyances to your installation or degrade performance a bit. I recommend installing 16.04 from scratch, if possible, to avoid these potential issues. Also, be sure to make a copy of your data to a DVD, flashdrive, or online storage before making any sweeping changes to your computer – user311982 Oct 01 '16 at 03:45

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If you upgrade using any of the in-built Ubuntu mechanisms then please follow this answer. Using these methods Ubuntu will download all the packages for you and then, upgrade your system. So, you will not loose any installed softwares. But keep in mind that this method is a bit risky, as it has been seen that many a times upgrades fail, leaving the system in an non-usable state.

If you are aiming for a clean install, then follow the below instructions. In this method you will loose all your installed softwares.

When apt-get downloads the packages for installation, it downloads those in the directory /var/cache/apt/archives/. So, until and unless you have manually deleted those files, they should be there. Copy those files from those directory and install them onto your new system:

cd /path/to/the/debs && sudo dpkg -i *.deb

BUT REMEMBER THAT THOSE PACKAGES MIGHT BREAK SOME OF YOUR PACKAGES IN 16.04 AS BECAUSE NEWER VERSIONS OF THESE PACKAGES MIGHT BE NEEDED IN XENIAL AND YOU ARE DELIBERATELY INSTALLING THE OLDER VEDRSIONS.

P.S.:- There are some very good softwares that helps an Ubuntu user in upgrading from one version of Ubuntu to other such as Aptik, etc. These softwares make a list of your installed softwares so that you don't have to manually download them again. Just run the software and it will download and install them for you.

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