If you’ve been waiting (as I have) to install Linux on a machine, especially a laptop, run, don’t walk, to www.ubuntu.com and give the Hardy Heron (8.04) a try.

For the last 3-4 years I’ve been trying each release, waiting for one that would work “well enough” on my Acer Aspire 5672 WLMi. By “well enough” I mean not crashing on hibernate/restore. 8.04 lives up to Canonical’s claim: It Just Works. This has given me back a processor core that used to be dedicated to running antivirus/antispyware under Vista.

So, to all the people who worked on this release, to all the developers who slave away on this stuff, thank you.