Hello, people! I've got a little bit of time on my hands, so I am really eager these days to do a little remix/remastering of Ubuntu...Nothing much, just try and do few modifications/combinations of features seen in Linux mint, Pinguy OS and Kubuntu. My goal is to make a remastered version that will appeal to some of my wider family memebers and friends who would like to try Linux/be less dependent on Windoze in terms of ease of use, reliability and simplicity... As we all know, most of the people out there use computers for web browsing, photo editing, uploading and sharing, downloading and watching movies, and rarely much more... While I have been using linux (different distros, mostly ubuntu/mint) for 2 years now, I never had much time to get deeper into it... So, now I would like to take Ubuntu (Fedora was a second candidate!) maybe remove some applications that would only confuse my friends, add some I know they would use, polish a little bit the interface, install a dock, wine maybe pacman, etc. And after all that I would put the distro through remastersys and share the iso with my friends and family members.
*how do I enable/install as many mostly used multimedia codecs/plugins as possible? -I did add medibuntu repositories and installed flash before that-anything else I can do?
*I downloaded and plan to work on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS as it is supposed to be most stable and longest supported version-Is that ok or maybe beter to work with 10.10, as I dont to want to battle with Unity and Gnome 3?
*after I have installed and somewhat sorted out everything I planned to, is there any way I can test all that, some sort of benchmarks, or whatever?
*is there any website that contains like an index or assorted topics on Ubuntu/Linux practical issues? Apparently Arch wiki contains some of the most detailed documentation and instructions available, for Arch linux though...I "wasted" 1.5 hours only to find a command to add medibuntu to repositories in ubuntu synaptic manager. It is a rough road to feeling relaxed with Linux, that is why I am doing this for my beloved..
*will I be able to install KDE 4.7 in this ubuntu I am using? Any info on that?

Many thanks!

Yes it is called 'kubuntu'

Dopeople really need anothjer ubuntu based distro? Even if its just for friends and family use....

Install DVDcss.

10.10 doesnt have unity (by defualt) or gnome 3. Gnome 3 will be coming with 11.10. Still, you dont want to work with 10.10 now, there isnt that much life left in it- end of life is April 2012.

10.04 is nearly halfway though its life, end of life for 10.04 is arpil 2013.

UnixBench is what I've been playing with lately.

BTW, some people use tools for benchmarking that were never really made for it (like 'hardinfo')

Ubuntu forums will have some info-

http://ubuntuforums.org/

There might also be some info on launchpad, but dont expect much (its a bug tracker, not a 'how to' page)-

https://launchpad.net/

Not easily. 10.04 has KDE 4.4 in its repos. Even 11.04 is only using 4.6. 11.10 probably will have KDE 4.7, and backporting it to 10.04 should be possible. That could cause issues though....

Set bios settings to failsafe or the slowest would help.

If stability is your priority, Ubuntu is probably not the best starting point. All distros (yours included) have specific design goals and they inevitably result in some trade-offs. Ubuntu has decided to release every six months, to use the latest software, to innovate and to extensively modify standard packages to create a great user experience. None of those design decisions promote stability.