As Quoted from Sourceforge Interview with Lee Schlesinger:

Without question Ubuntu is a great Linux distribution, but is it the ultimate OS? Nominally that title has to go to Ultimate Edition, an Ubuntu remix designed for both new Linux users and experienced sophisticates.

Developer Glenn “TheeMahn” Cady created the antecedent to Ultimate Edition in 2006, a version of Ubuntu with a Christmas theme that he called Ubuntu Christmas Edition. Its successor, Ubuntu Ultimate, drew an e-mail from Canonical, the organization behind Ubuntu, asking Cady not to use the Ubuntu name or logo because of trademark issues, so he changed the name to Ultimate Edition. Over time the distribution has grown in scope and power. While it caters to new users, it also bundles powerful tools for programming, as well as software called Ultamatix that allows users to easily install additional software and games.

Though Ultimate Edition releases are built based on twice-yearly stable releases of Ubuntu, Cady says the distro doesn’t blindly follow Ubuntu’s release schedule. “I strive for perfection, so users will get new versions when I and my admins and beta testers feel they are ready. All even-numbered releases are GNOME-based only, while odd release, such as 2.7, which came out this month, have GNOME, LXDE, KDE, Xfce, and Openbox. We also create a Gamers Edition.”

What makes Ultimate Edition so great? “One of the things I have tried to address,” Cady says, “is wireless issues – a showstopper for most laptop users. Software is another issue. I have been accused of bloating the OS because I include more than one application in different areas, such as having two or three music players. Some people call it bloat; I call it choice.”

SourceForge was a welcome answer to the project’s hosting issues. “Ultimate Edition has changed hosting services many times over the years,” Cady says. “Not long ago we had settled on a cloud of six 1Gbps servers to meet the users’ demands, mirroring across many other servers, only to be shut down again and again. In November 2009 we saw roughly half a petabyte of traffic and were shut down three times. One of my admins suggested SourceForge. It was the wisest decision I have ever made, and never have I looked back. I cannot thank you guys enough.”

As for the future, the project is considering creating a version of Ultimate Edition for the PS/3 and a Lite Edition for computers with low resources. The admins are also discussing opening beta testing of new versions to a wider swath of users.