Ubuntu Hardy Heron gets released in just a few days and although all the usual things have been updated as is expected every 6 months, this time it is the little differences that have really made improvements. Let me explain:

In Hardy when I change the brightness on my laptop I get this handy dialog showing me the brightness level. Also when my laptop is unplugged the brightness dims when I’m not using the computer.

This is feature that is already in Windows and it has finally made it to Linux and Ubuntu. I can now manage the wireless networks I’ve connected to. So it now shows me what connections I was connected to and when and also the (encypted) password used to connect.

This is one of the best new features in Hardy Heron (8.04). I’ve never seen something like this by default in an operating system. I can check the weather and the time in any cities I choose to around the world just by clicking on the time and date in the corner. You also get the normal calender above this. If you highlight the weather symbol on one of the cities you get a summary of the conditions and the temperature.

In summary, there are many other great features in Hardy, I’ve just picked some of my favourites. I strongly suggest to download Ubuntu 8.04 when it is released soon.

PS: There is a gold star up for grabs for the first person who can tell me the name of the movie the quote in the title is from!