Bitwise.org

Fedora "Werewolf" 8 is a good release. I've been running it on my Pioneer laptop since Test 1 and I think it's enough of an advance to be worthy of a new version number. I much prefer the new theme to the F7 theme - it has the cool clean but still attractive look that I like in Gnome.

I still need to have another play with it, but the Online Desktop feature looks interesting.

Rhythmbox *finally* hit version 0.11 and includes the cross-fading feature that allows tracks to play without a gap between them. Essential stuff for mixed albums.

Gnash 0.8.1 is available from the standard repository and provides damn good support for most Flash-based content.

The X1600 graphics card in the laptop isn't supported for its native resolution of 1280x800, but I can get the Free RadeonHD driver which compiles and works very nicely. Last I heard from Phoronix, there was a problem with the ATI driver and 2.6.23 kernels, so no Desktop Effects for me anytime soon it seems. Hopefully the RadeonHD crew will build in 3D and AIGLX support before the 8.43 ATI driver is released, so I'm not tempted to add any closed source junk to my build. I think that's asking a lot, though. ;-)

Another hardware feature that I'm looking to have supported soon is the Atheros Wireless card. Currently, the ath5k drivers, in the 2.6.23 kernel, recognise the card and its capabilites. Unfortunately, trying to scan for APs or trying any other configuration typically results in a lock-up. I've blacklisted the driver for now and am using the Madwifi drivers from ATrpms until the fully Free drivers work properly.
I'll probably migrate my desktop to F8 this weekend using the two old SATA disks that were my F6 install. Once I'm happy that it's solid, I'll push it onto the 250GB disks that I'm using now for F7.