Time machine For Ubuntu? Try Timevault and Flyback

While most people may feel that backing up the files and system is a troublesome and difficult task, Mac OSX Leopard’s Time machine has made it really simple for its users to use. You just need to plug in your external drive and an initial configuration, the Time machine will then be automated in the background.

In Ubuntu (and other Linux distro), you can also get a Time machine equivalent via Timevault and Flyback.

Both Timevault and Flyback make snapshot of your hard drive at regular interval and allow you to restore the backup in the event that your hard drive crashes, or loss of particular files. Both have a simple graphical interface so its users won’t have to use the command line to backup their system (though you still can’t find the 3D interface in Time machine).

The advantage of Timevault is that it is able to integrate into the nautilus and users can easily access the snapshot and history with a click in their nautilus icon bar. Timevault is not included in the Ubuntu repository, but its installation is made easy with a GDebi installer software package. Installation is a breeze and configuration is quite intuitive, though you have to relogin to your Ubuntu to access to the nautilus integration.
Installation guide [http://howtoforge.com/snapshot-backups-with-timevault-ubuntu-7.10]

Flyback is the lightweight version of Timevault. It does not integrate with nautilus, but it provides a live view of your current snapshot and a previous snapshot. There is no installation required, except for updating some Python libraries.
Installation guide [http://www.howtoforge.com/creating-snapshot-backups-with-flyback-ubuntu-7.10]

Both Timevault and Flyback are free to download and use.