I started using a separate home partition a while back. And though I was
able to connect to it in the past, my install of 11.04 on my netbook
would not connect to it with the method I had been using. My Toshiba
was not a problem with this issue however. Because of this little
problem I have gone back to moving the home dir on the netbook.

Anyhow I second Roy's feelings on this. Although I have used the upgrade
option in the past. I don't like headaches so do fresh installs now.
Fresh installs are the least likely to cause problems, but not without
problems. I rotate my versions on 3 partitions installing a new version
replacing the oldest version, without removing the latest working
version. This gives me time to prove the new before moving over to it.

I would like to say I have got the synaptics to do my work for me, but
as of yet fail to get my head around it. I have my list and do it the
hard way. The advantage of doing it the hard way is I am always seeing
applications to substitute for the one I was using, and give it a try.
The results are mixed but I have found some great apts that I would not
have found had I not been working on the system.