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I just completed my Ubuntu installation. It contains all packages I need and I configured my apps correctly.

I would like to backup this installation and be able to restore it to different computers with different hardware.

I have read that the solution would be the following:

1- Save a list of the installed packages.
2- Backup the home directory.

3- Install the same version of Ubuntu on the new machine.
4- Restore the list of installed packages on the new machine.
5- Restore the backup of the home directory on the new machine.

Would this keep all of my insalled softwares and their configurations?

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That should indeed restore all software and their settings, as they are stored inside your home folder (don't forget to copy the hidden folder, because that's where the configuration files are kept!). The applications that are run as root however, will most probably lose their configuration this way.
Just a little hint to prevent trouble, choose the same username and password on the target machine as you did on the machien where you copied everything from. Choosing the same host name would be a good idea as well, I think.

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Could you explain me how to copy and restore the home folder with the hidden folder? – ReAzem Nov 8 '11 at 18:35
Just press CTRL+H in the file manager to see hidden folders, they're the ones starting with a .. – RobinJ Nov 8 '11 at 18:41
You may want to grab a copy of the /etc directory as well since that is where most of the system configurations go(firewall, apache, package repositories, etc.) /etc is also fairly small so it won't take up much space. – chuck Nov 8 '11 at 19:03
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