Ubuntu 8.04 beta has a program called Hardware test, which asks you a few questions about whether your hardware is properly recognized.

That is a big step but it would be great to have it expanded for common pain points such as hibernation, 3d support, wireless and ethernet cards (both, not only one), webcams, usb devices, tablet pcs, printers, ...

A good reference list of checks can be found in:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTesting

The more people tests the beta, the better hardware support we will get. Hardware compatibility is one of the pain points for GNU/Linux as far as I know, and knowing which ones fail is the first step to solve them.

Reporting bugs manually can be time consuming for everybody. If we do this, we will know which devices or features "just work" and which don't. Also knowing how many have each of the devices will help to focus priorities.