I agree that there are still some quirks to work out, but you have to admit that these things have been rapidly improving. If you consider all of the software and configurations that exist for any given Linux install (a virtually infinite number), then you have to admit that Linux has come a long way in about 15 years. After all, Microsoft had a 10-15 year head start and the advantage of being able to throw money at the annoying little problems that open source programmers don't like to work on.

As for Ubuntu, I personally have not been very happy with it. I have had much better luck using Gentoo, being quite satisfied with the software management system (called portage), and their approach of compiling everything. My system is very stable and fast, without too much effort.

I will admit that there are some problems trying to work with closed-source software like the Java browser plug-in and Flash, but there are generally step-by-step how-tos out there that say exactly how to get it working. 64-bit is still a bit rough in a few places. I predict that within a year or two, however, many of these issues will be ironed out and everything will be smooth.

Of course, if you're trying to install beta software, you should still expect some difficulty.