Ultimate Edition 3.0 "Gamers" Released

On one of the slowest news days of the year came the welcomed announcement of Ultimate Edition 3.0 "Gamers." The Ultimate Edition, once dubbed Ubuntu Ultimate, is based or derived from Lubuntu, but the "Gamers" Edition takes it to another level by offering an environment suitable for gaming as well as dozens of pre-installed games and emulators.

Since the Gamers Edition is built on the "Lite" version, regular software is somewhat less than one might find on the full version, but it certainly seems like Ultimate Lite brings more than most other's full. You'll find applications such as Firefox, Sylpheed, Amarok, Brasero, Pidgin, and VLC. This sits on Linux 2.6.38-8, Xorg X Server 1.10.1, and GCC 4.4.5 is installable. The list of games is quite extensive, but suffice to say that just about every cool game you can think of that's freely available for Linux is included. Wine, Winetricks, and PlayOnLinux are also thrown in for good measure.

Synpatic Package Management

The LXDE desktop is attractive enough and the theme is memorable. There are a few little extras here and there, one of which is something that looks very much like a rocketship cursor. The installer is borrowed from Lubuntu, which looks like the Ubuntu installer. The extra hardware driver installer is present as are several configuration tools.

There are several gaming distributions available, but they each have their own strong points. It seems that Ultimate's are a modern and lightweight system with all the software from Ubuntu at your fingertips.

It looks like it's going to be a dull weekend, might as well play some games.

Lubuntu/Ultimate Installer