One of the problems with Linux is that hardware manufacturers are reluctant to
share information with Linux developers. This makes the job of Linux developers
harder than it needs to be. Open source developers share information quite
freely which is why the OEMs are not keen out letting out their trade secrets.

There are so many projects in open source that, although sharing occurs, it is
fairly fragmented due to the nature of the community. Each distro and project
has a niche. Some distros behave better on some equipment than others. This same
distro may behave poorly on someone else's machine. It is hit or miss to find
what works for you. Maybe Ubuntu is one distro that does not work the best on
your hardware, even though it is the most widely used distro today.

I can get everything to work on my desktop computer except Mandriva. It just
won't boot no matter what I try. Yet, PCLOS and its siblings work great (kudos
to Texstar!). Other distros behave great. Some work only so so. I know that SUSE
will give great performance, but Fedora sucks on my machine. Yet, others will
tell you it works great for them.

I am sorry if I sounded harsh about Hardy. You were right to give it a try and
equally right to turn to another distro when it did not work.

The distros that I have found to be best at hardware detection, aside from
Ubuntu, are Simply MEPIS, a Debian derivative, and PCLinuxOS, a Mandriva
derivative. They are both small distros with active user bases and helpful
forums. My problem with PCLOS is that its repositories are too restrictive. I
love SUSE, but find the same thing. Simply MEPIS on the other hand is Debian so
it has the second largest repositories, next to Ubuntu. Like PCLOS it isn't
bleeding edge however. It does come in both 32 and 64 bit versions and has a
scaled back version for older computers called AnitX.

Other distros to try that may work for you are Freespire, with an Ubuntu core,
but made to emulate Windows and openSUSE. Freespire is simple to install and
use. It has huge repositories, but they are not as current as Ubuntu's. SUSE has
the power of Novell behind them and it is the most gorgeous distro with a great
toolset. Unfortunately it is rpm based and for me that means it is just a matter
of time before you get dependency problems that crash the computer or make
things not work. If Fedora (also rpm based) is working well, then I suggest that
you stick with it.

One of the benefits of a Live CD is that you can try it before you install. If
your sound card or wireless does not work from the Live CD then it is not a good
idea to install it. I often wonder why people install a distro from a Live CD
and then complain that their equipment is not working. Check it out first.
Sometimes it will quit working but that is another story.