I am trying to get an application running on OpenShift but after trying to create an ssh key on Ubuntu using ssh-keygen I ran into permissions problems. This is because I find I have no need for the rhc client if it only automates this process but bloats my computer (laptop) with a ruby installation.
I find that it would be best to have an alternative for Ubuntu (Linux) users. Is it possible to make this happen or do I have to go the rhc way?
You get a long way without the rhc command line tool. Obviously you can create your ssh key yourself and add/mange it via the OpenShift website. You can also create your application there and add cartridges. When it comes to starting the app, you can usually do that by jsut pushing your git repository. Last but not least, you can ssh onto your OpenShift gear and do a lot from there, for example view the log files.
That said, the rhc client is your one stop client for all this (and more). So even if you might not need it right now and some task are in fact done easier without it, I would still recommend to install it. A lot of information/tutorials are using rhc and w/o enough experience you will not know how to achieve a certain task in a different way.