Anyone know of a good frontend for a CARPC thats Ubuntu based?

I have chased this for several days now.. I am working with an OEM to build/market/sell all electric vehicle(s). We are wanting to build a CARPC for these vehicles (similar to mimodhp.com). Mimod uses windows, and I DONT want to use Windows for this project.

I am thinking a linux OS is the best for this type of "embedded application". I have looked at various "front ends" for CARPCs, like Riderunner, Centrafuse, but I came to the conclusion they are all slow, poorly implemented, poorly supported (especially with Ride Runner), and they are all WINDOWS based. Centrafuse has some sort of Beta thing for linux, (they show no real interest in linux), and thats about it.

I found a couple videos on youtube talking about linuxICE and nGhost, which looked interesting. Then I googled that, and found its a dead project, replaced by another project, meego. I googled that, and I see its also pretty much dead.

I cant imagine a front end being THAT complicated to create. Does anyone on this forum/site know of a good front end to ubuntu for a CARPC? Its basically just a menu system with big buttons, that works with a touchscreen, and has things like an on screen keyboard (much like my samsung phone does actually, which runs android).

By the way I am not just looking for playing mp3s/videos, etc. We want to have gauges and show the state of the controller and the batteries, GPS Navigation, control things like power windows/locks, show turn signals, basically a digital replacement for all the analog instruments in a vehicle.

Kind of like this: http://www.chevyhardcore.com/news/greg-cullums-69-chevelle-brings-muscle-into-the-world-of-tomorrow/