I use Ubuntu 14.04, 64-bit. I installed Virtualbox and was testing another Linux OS (Deepin). My system froze and I could not get to a TTY session to reboot. I had to do a hard restart and when Ubuntu restarted I got various error codes one of which was "kernel panic - fatal exception in interrupt" Booting to Advance mode and attempting repairs did not work (fsck, grub repair, etc)

I reinstalled Ubuntu and chose the option to keep my files intact. I can now access my system but many programs I have installed do not work.

My question is; I have a Deja-Dup backup (but only of my Home directory), is it better to restore my backup files or do I have to reinstall all of my programs? The weird thing is, the programs I verified using the Software Center to see if they were installed are checked as installed, but won't appear in Dash.