Hardy Heron Beta on T-61: First Impressions

So I just tried the LiveCD version of the beta and am pretty impressed. Since I need to start fresh in a few days (start with Tenable next week) and I've been getting some annoying reiserfs R/O inode errors, will probably do the deed real soon now. As is the case with any Ubuntu pre-release several 100 package updates in the works.

Two of three boots worked just fine (the one that failed I was messing with volume controls while GNOME was booting, coicidence?). Among the differences I noticed: Firefox 3.0b4, a new Encryption, Desktop Effects worked perfectly, didn't try WPA. Sound (and volume controls, that are more OSX like) worked perfectly. Codec finder worked on the second time and was able to fire up Radio Paradise and listen to a stream.

Update
Actual install and reboot went fine but after upgrading the packages, I ran into the same GNOME startup issue (hang). Basically you lose control over the keyboard (Caps Lock doesn't blink) but mouse is still active... weird. But rebooted and then went into the console and installed OpenBox, restarted gdm. This worked (non-GNOME) and then weirdly worked with Gnome, so perhaps this is a Nautilus/Metacity issue...