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Home > News > Linux > Application of the month

July 25th, 2008, 13:11 GMT · By

Ultamatix: The New Automatix

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Ultamatix 1.8.0
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I guess all Linux users, especially Ubuntu ones, have used or at least heard about Automatix, an application that can install and uninstall the most used and popular programs. From multimedia codecs and archiving tools, e-mail clients and web browsers, to audio/video ripping and burning software, Automatix could do them all. Unfortunately, a few months ago, Automatix died (it was actually sold to the Pioneer Linux).

Today we are pleased to announce the Automatix replacement: Ultamatix! It is actually based on Automatix, therefore it looks and acts exactly the same. The good news is that Ultamatix is designed to work with Ultimate Editon 1.8, Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) and the unstable branch of Debian Linux.

How does Ultamatix work? Well, instead of searching all day long through thousands of applications in Synaptic, in order to make your newly installed Ubuntu system exactly how you dreamed of, you can use only one software to install them all, in one single easy step. For example, you need all the multimedia codecs and all the archiving tools available out there – what are you going to do? Are you gonna spend 1 or 2 hours (or even more) on the Internet, searching for different guides or in front of Synaptic, wondering what else you may need? With Ultamatix, you can install all the multimedia codecs, archiving tools and the Adobe Flash Player for Firefox, and it will all take you 5 minutes and 3 mouse clicks.

OK, OK... now you're anxious and you are wondering what the applications that Ultamatix can install are. Below is a list with some of the most widely used programs and the dozens of games that Ultamatix can install:


Audio/Video Ripping and Burning tools

• DVD Ripper (DVD ripper tool)
• DVD Styler (DVD authoring system)
• K9copy (DVD backup software)
• Man DVD (DVD-Video generator)
• xDVDshrink (DVDshrink clone)

Chat clients

• Pidgin + All its plugins
• AMSN (MSN Messenger client)
• Kvirc (IRC client)
• Skype (Voice Over IP software)
• XChat (IRC client)

E-mail clients

• Checkgmail (system tray GMail checker)
• Swiftdove (Thunderbird clone)

Eye Candy tools

• Avant Window Navigator (Mac OS X dock-like)
• Gdesklets (desktop widgets)
• Screenlets (desktop widgets)
• Ultimate Edition themes
Office software

• Acrobat Reader (PDF viewer)
• Gourmet (recipe manager)
• Google Earth
• Google Picasa
• Microsoft Office OpenXML Translator
• OpenOffice Clipart

Audio/Video Players and Editors

• Amarok 2 (versatile audio player)
• Banshee (audio player)
• Dragon Player (video player)
• Lives (video editor)
• Totem-Xine
• Songbird (iTunes like music manager)
• VLC (video player)
• iLinux (iLife alternative)

Programming tools

• Glade 3
• Quanta Plus
• Screem Editor
• Bluefish Editor
• Anjuta IDE


Not convinced yet? Ultamatix can also install all the multimedia codecs, archiving tools, Nautilus scripts, Adobe Flash 9, Sun Java 1.6 JRE, Wine, NTFS read/write support, Ubuntu Tweak, Acetone ISO 2, Frostwire, Startup Manager, Sysinfo, Firestarter, Clam Anti-virus, extra fonts and themes and the KDE, XFCE or Enlightenment environments.

Still not convinced? Take a look at the following games that can be installed, with only a few mouse clicks, on your Ubuntu operating system:

• Return to the Castle of Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
• America's Army
• Alien Arena 2007
• Amoebax
• AssaultCube
• ATanks
• Nexuiz
• Glest
• Tremulous
• The Battle for Wesnoth
• Open Arena
• Warsow
• Vdrift
• BzFlag
• Orbital Sniper
• Neverball
• Urban Terror
• Vegastrike
• Scorched 3D
• FooBillard
• Wormux
• World Of Padman
• Frozen Bubble
• Flightgear
• Globulation 2
• UFO: Alien Invasion
• Warzone 2100

How do I install it?

We've tested Ultamatix on the latest version of Ubuntu, 8.04.1 LTS. The installation process is the same for both i386 and AMD64 machines, and requires you to download the .deb file from Softpedia. When the download is over, double click the ultamatix-1.8.0-3_all.deb file, enter your password and install it. That's it! Now you can find Ultamatix under System Tools -> Ultamatix. Use it wisely!

Supported operating systems:

• Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) LTS
• Ubuntu 8.04.1 (Hardy Heron) LTS
• Ubuntu Ultimate Edition 1.8
• Debian Unstable

Let’s take a look at some screenshots of the latest version of Ultamatix in action, tested here at the Softpedia Labs:

Review imageReview imageReview imageReview imageReview image


Review imageReview imageReview imageReview imageReview image



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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: Vadim on 25 Jul 2008, 16:02 UTC reply to this comment

PLEASE. Not Automatix AGAIN.

If you want to contribute to Ubuntu, contribute *direclty*. So it has this by *default*. Don't re-create Automatix which screwed Ubuntu very badly over with it's poor-quality scripts.

Package a program if it's not in Add/Remove. But otherwise, looking at the list, the majority of these programs are already in Ubuntu. Why mess up users?

Comment #1.1 by: wumpus on 26 Jul 2008, 12:50 GMT

In general, Automatix scripts *can't* be included in ubuntu or debian directly. They tend to include less-than-free or even less-than-legal-(everywhere) code, and thus can't be distributed with ubuntu.

Automatix is what it is for a reason.


Comment #2 by: Kit on 26 Jul 2008, 03:07 UTC reply to this comment

While I like the idea of having an easy way to install Songbird, I'd rather somebody put the packages in the official Ubuntu Packages...
Is there any reason someone can't do that instead?

Comment #2.1 by: Dylan McCall on 26 Jul 2008, 18:04 GMT

Kit, you may be interested in the Launchpad Personal Package Archive service, then!
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/ ppas

Found one by Fabien Tassin which appears to have a recent version of Songbird:
https://launchpad.net/~fta/ archive

Unfortunately, it is also surrounded by piles of others. Lots of the time, a team will publish a PPA specific to their project (as it should be); for example, Banshee 1.x is available for supported distros compiled automatically for all supported architectures straight from the Banshee Team's PPA.


Comment #3 by: Brownieboy on 27 Jul 2008, 22:39 UTC reply to this comment

My big problem with Autmatix was this kept changing my repositories, which was outrageous.

I'm on a metered cap with my ISP, but anything that I download from their own repositories doesn't count against that cap. So, naturally, I had my repositories pointed towards there. Who knows how much of my data allocation I wasted before I discovered Automatix had unilaterally changed this. (It gave no warning about it, as I recall).


Comment #4 by: zzmadi on 28 Jul 2008, 21:14 UTC reply to this comment

This is one of my biggest pet peeves ..... You guys calling the OS "Ubuntu Ultimate Edition" when it is NOT part of the "Ubuntu" distorbutions. As a matter of fact, The Operating System that you refer to as "Ubuntu Ultimate Edition" had to change its name from that quite a while ago upon Connicals request to remove any and all reference to "Ubuntu" what so ever. This means that there is NO logo sharing with Ubuntu, and the name "Ubuntu" had to be removed. The author of "Ultimate Edition" did so and this seperates "Ultimate Edition" completely from "Ubuntu"
...... Lets get this straight people- it is called "Ultimate Edition" and nothing else. I think that some credit should be given to the maker of the "Ultimate Edition" in this article as well, after all "TheeMahn" is the creator of Ultamatix as well as Ultimate Edition. Thanks for the understanding. Correcting this error would be greatly appreciated.

Comment #4.1 by: vinca on 22 Aug 2008, 20:25 GMT

wtg daddy! Also, for those concerned in the security risk, ultamatix has not ever borked my system, and belive me, i've tried it all. it's a very well-written piece of software.


Comment #5 by: Melissa on 02 Aug 2008, 09:26 UTC reply to this comment

Any script that uses "apt-get install|remove --force-yes --assume-yes" is dangerous. It can forcibly remove your entire software stack -- I've personally had to deal with very upset people who it's happened to.

Ultamatix uses the command nearly 200 times. Go figure the risk.


Comment #6 by: Chris Jones on 03 Nov 2008, 11:06 UTC reply to this comment

DO NOT USE THIS. IT IS HIGHLY BROKEN AND DANGEROUS.

I REPEAT... DO NOT USE THIS.


Comment #7 by: peter on 27 Nov 2008, 15:24 UTC reply to this comment

I like ultamatic a lot, ubuntu+ultamatic=perfect! It save me a lot of work!


Comment #8 by: on 15 May 2009, 12:54 UTC reply to this comment

well, i have been using ultamatix for quite a while now and have not run into any problems. Is there something i should beware while using it?

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