Courtesy of OSWeekly.com

The Ubuntu Hardware Database. In the latest release of Ubuntu, if you go to System, Administration, Device Manager, you will see something unusual at the bottom right of the page - the hardware database tool. By clicking on this button, you will launch a utility that enables your PC and Ubuntu to make sure that your computer's hardware is detected and working as it should be.

In the case of most Linux distributions out there, you are basically left with dropping in the Live CD and hoping for the best. Ubuntu, on the other hand, has done one better and even went so far as to provide a great tool within the UI itself. With this attractive hardware detection tool, you can easily determine whether or not your PC's hardware is going to be a good fit for this particular Linux distribution.

Think about it - having the ability to verify your hardware in the real world rather than spending time scouring over some tired old HCL in some random hope of "getting things to work" is less frightening and more productive, especially to beginner Linux users, where finding information quickly and efficiently (or the lack thereof) could can make or break their choice in distributions.

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