Getting Ubuntu to work well often requires throwing away hardware that comes with a machine and buying new stuff that has linux support. Or compiling the kernel with new drivers.
In my case I had problems with lirc devices, my bluetooth keyboard, and my display card.

We need a major push to include drivers for *all* hardware. How can we expect desktop adoption if you have to be able to compile the kernel to get your device to work or you have to throw your hardware away?

At very least there should be a place that describes the level of device driver support for every device. A place that serves to rally effort to support and test drivers. Otherwise this is one place that Windows wins.