Ubuntu netbook edition safe install from synaptic?

[johny_]

Hello there,

I have a small, tiny Samsung notebook. Sometimes, using normal ubuntu makes me crazy, mostly because of windows that don't scale and go out of my eyesight. For this reason of better compatibility, I'm thinking of installing the Netbook Edition. The problem for me is my current data stored on Ubuntu partition that I have no way to backup. Here my questions comes? Is there any way to upgrade to the remix edition without (at least theoretically)removing this data? If I do it from PPA, which is "untrusted" should it install safely? Then what should I do to get rid of gnome? remove ubuntu-desktop?

Please, share you thoughts.

Thanks