Recently I've bought a new notebook.
I'm going to install ubuntu 12.04 next to win8 with dual boot config.
Is it that simple and safe to just copy my home folder from an old desktop with Ubuntu 10.04 to a new 12.04 installed system? Or should I do that other way?
Yes, just copy over your home directory. These are the steps I would follow:
Make a proper archive on the old system.
cd /home
sudo tar -zcf username-archive.tar.gz username
Make sure that you use the same username on the new system.
Copy over the archive to the new system outside the home directory where we will unpack it to of course.
(Re)boot up the new system, but don't log in yet. This will make sure nothing will be running under your user account, depending on the contents of your homedir.
Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to go to a virtual terminal.
Log in, then become root fully, e.g.
sudo su -
Backup the almost empty homedir, e.g.
mv /home/username /home/username-old
Unpack it, e.g.
cd /home
tar -zxf username-archive.tar.gz
