I think it would be a great idea. I have been using Yast (Suse 8.2 & 9.1) for quite a while and it works great. It combines updating, software installation and system configurations under one GUI.
It is very similar to Apt/Synaptic with a whole bunch more features.
Utopia looks like a great project, but it deals mainly with device recognition and mounting? Wouldn't that make it a replacement for KUDZU (which probably could use some help

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