I agree that the Ubuntu kernel developers need some more resource. I struggled for quite a
long time with a different freeze problem on Gutsy and Hardy kernels (2.6.22 and 2.6.24) which
involved a "nobody cared" message on a shared IRQ, followed by a lockup of the devices using
that IRQ. I bypassed this by the kernel boot parameters "all_generic_ide irqpoll" which
doesn't seem to have hit performance noticeably, but it wasted quite a lot of time when I was
setting up a new PC built specifically for Ubuntu.
Also, suspend/hibernate took some time to get working, but that's due to lack of a really good
configuration wizard that will figure out the various options required to make it work. And
it's broken again for some reason that I can't figure out...
I really like Ubuntu but I hope that stability and bug-fixing can be given more attention over
new features. I don't really need new features but would like a few things to work better.