Well, I've decided to have a little fun and I loaded the beta for Ubuntu Hardy Heron linux on my Acer Aspire 3680 laptop. I figured I really like Ubuntu in general, and this is one way I can contribute.

I'm happy to say that everything is working pretty damn well, so far. Heron fixes all the hardware issues I have in every linux distro that I've tried (and this includes Edgy, Feisty, Gutsy, OpenSUSE 10.3, and Linux Mint 4.0). Suspend works correctly, screen resolution and sound both worked out of the box (no configuration required), and I can finally burn CD's on my laptop . This also allowed me to kill a bug I had reported almost a year ago. Overall, Ubuntu will definately be my primary linux distro again.

I have submitted a number of bugs, as well. Aptitude and Update-Manager are not in sync. I find different available upgraded packages in each. Firefox 3 beta 4 is definately NOT ready for general use, despite what Yahoo News reports. It's getting there, but there are basic functional problems still (like the Home button is hidden on the bookmarks toolbar, instead of the main toolbar). My touchpad is also extra-sensitive, but only when using Firefox. Not sure what would cause this. I'm really hoping that when the final Firefox 3 comes out, there is an update for Heron included. It would be stupid of Ubuntu to not do this, IMO.

Anyways, it looks like Hardy Heron is going to be a very good release, at least for me. I actually switched to OpenSUSE for a while because of Gutsy, which was a buggy mess. (I'd probably still be on OpenSUSE except that I really don't like YaST).