Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04):Initial review

Recently ubuntu has released a newer version of ubuntu linux code name Hardy Heron. I have tried it for 2 days and it has really impressed me.
One thing that caused users most trouble in linux is its installation. but with introduction of wubi installation, that trouble has literally ended.
So, if you are a windows user and want to try Hardy Heron, its installation is as simple as any other program in windows. You put the CD/DVD and run ubmenu.exe from within the windows. You then select the drive where to install and the space to allocate for linux. I recommend 15 GB of space to be allocated. The you choose the user name and password for linux and click install. Thats it. There is no confusion over partitioning of hard disk.
One of the beauty of the ubuntu install is that you can continue to use your computer while linux is installing. Be it from within windows or a single install.
After install is finished, you reboot the machine and can choose to boot windows or ubuntu. Uninstall is also simple. you just select uninstall from add remove program and it is completely uninstalled.
Upto now I have just tried firefox with it. Browsing experience is ok except that I can't use google toolbar as shipped firefox is version3.
I will be trying different alternatives to windows applications in Ubuntu. So keep watch on my blog.

HP Pavilion DV6703 TX Laptop

I was looking for new laptop and finally shortlisted two brands. DELL and HP. The problem with DELL was that I could not see it before buying altough I could customize it online. So I went for HP Pavilion DV6703 TX model.
It has Intel Core 2 Duo processor 1.67GHz, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM, NVIDIA graphics card with 256 MB dedicated memory, 160 GB SATA hard disk, 15.4" widescreen, lightscribe DVD writer, webcam, touch sensitive media buttons, windows vista home premium and etc. It costs around 49.5K INR in bangalore.
My experince till now is very good and did not face any major problems. It is recommended if you want a entertainment laptop along with windows OS. It comes with Quickplay software form HP which is very nice. It can play media without booting the entire OS itself. Windows vista home premium also provides a cool experince.
Few of its drawbacks are that somtimes speakers become noisy. For windows vista no DVD is provided. instead a recovery software is provided which eats up 10GB of harddisk space. And if you uninstall the recovery software, you loose the functionality of playing media without booting.
I can give it a rating of 4 out of five seeing the cost factor as well.