This installation of arch is 2 years old at this point and there’s nothing wrong with it and I want to do a clean reinstall to feel more fresh. But I’ve been constantly delaying it for a long time because I’m scared breaking something and also not having my laptop fully functional for even a day isn’t a pleasant thought.
The benefits I think is being able to handpick which files I want to keep and which packages I would reinstall since the thought of how many files and packages are left over from when I momentarily needed them is really unpleasent. But this habit of reinstalling the OS as a cleanup method might be a bad one I’ve brought myself from the time I used windows which was justified back then but it may no longer be here since I can achieve what I want with a much more simple and less risky method
So am I being an idiot here? Or should I go for it?
Edit: I do have bleachbit but the benefit of a reinstall is that only system files, essential packages and my personal files are kept (actually copied out, formatted and copied back in for my files). These two aren’t the same
Edit 2: Thank you everyone for their answers, it’s clear that I don’t have that much reason to wipe my system at the moment. It might be a better learning experience to look for orphan files and packages
I guess it is better to spend some little time cleaning up your existing install than doing a fresh one. From what you describe, you just have some leftover configuration files you can delete.
Fresh installs is needed when you messed up your current install with broken packages or missing ones or missing configuration and you just don’t know how to clean it up.
So as long as you can clean up your install, just clean it.
I agree and clicked to say the same thing, until I read “I’m scared of breaking something” - if you want to get good at Linux, then do what you’re scared of, and break things, because that is how you learn.
If you do not want to - which is 100% perfectly fine and acceptable - not everyone has to be a Linux expert and some people do just want to use it - then I wouldn’t bother unless there is a specific need.
Just want to add, before doing anything make sure you have backups that you have tested before doing what you’re scared of!
It should make it easier not to be scared and you can always revert if you do end up breaking something.