Ubuntu and Automatrix

I discovered at http://ubuntuforums.org Automatrix. A fine gui for installing a lot of useful stuf such as Firefox 1.5, flash/java for firefox, Skype, DC++, torrent-clients, mediaplayers, et c. This combined with the already simple installation of Ubuntu or KUbuntu makes the usability of Linux for "newbie" users much more simple.

My brother came over yesterday wanting to borrow some CD:s and complained about having to re-install his computer cause it was full of viruses and other malicous stuff. I asked him what he was using for software in addition to Windows. He said mostly Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger, ICQ, Winamp, something for burning CD/DVDs and Winzip/Rar. I showed him my Ubuntu setup with KDE, Firefox, Xmms, et c. He told me that what he was seeing wasn't what he thought Linux was. I think a lot of people has heard about Linux, but most of them has no good picture about what a Linux distribution is or can do.

I probably won't fit into the newbie category of users, but I fit in the I-want-time-to-do-other-stuff category. I belive in Opensource. I belive that more people could use Opensource software in their home or office computers. And for more users to switch to Opensource solutions it has to be simple, the ways of configurating and installing should be recognisable for a user that comes from a Windows enviroment. More and more distrobutions seems to be doing this.

I threw out Windows XP from my machines (two to be specific) for about two months ago and have been spending my time with Ubuntu on the primary computer and trying out different dists on the secondary computer. The without a doubt simplest installtion was DesktopBSD but that didn't work properly out-of-the-box. The only one I gave up on during installtion was Gentoo. Gentoo is a good idea, with the focus on choice, but it is not simple.
A completly GUI:d installation of Gentoo would from my perspectiv be a sucess. The
focus on choice combined with the usability of a GUI.

The thing that I find the Opensource world lacks the most is a standardformat for binary packages? I'm not the only one thinking this. Why isn't there any package standard? Not standards, theres a lot of standards, but I cry out for ONE. I can't really say if the .rpm system is better or worse compared against the .deb system. There is probably pros and cons. I hope to see some in the future.