Question about clean install

The only time I have done a clean install (late 2011 MBP originally had Lion on it) was right after I purchased the machine and attempted to use rEFIT to allow dual booting with Ubuntu which was not successful.

In the ensuing 3 years, the machine has gone from Lion to Mavericks without problems- I also installed the Beta seed for 3 and I update frequently. However in the past couple of months I have noticed a slowdown and think now might be a good time to wipe the drive and reinstall 10.9.3.

From my UNIX and Linux experience pretty much everything specific to the user is in /home. I am assuming this is true with Mavericks. What I anticipate is wiping, reinstallation and then restoring from Time Machine. Question is- am I better to install all the apps from scratch rather than restoring from Time Machine? I am asking this since I have never had the need to use Time Machine for a restore. I also am assuming that the really important things like the mailboxes (I use firefox and PGP) , keys and so forth will be restored as well.

I did a search here and didn't find what I was looking for so thats the reason for asking.

Regards and thanks

Expat

Weaselboy

I thought this might be the case but was not entirely sure- thanks for the confirmation.

I appreciate the kind reply and the interest. I was beginning to think my question would drift off the first page and away into obscurity..........

Regards


Expat

Ype I ve noticed that. I elected not to participate in this release of Yosemite. Will see what the future brings. Since I am traveling this is my only machine...... I did the beta of 10.9.3 - the seed program. That went well but this early a version I don't feel like risking it.