I've been using Fuduntu for nearly a year now (Fedora based, roling release distro that has stuck with Gnome 2) and it has worked out well. I don't know how long they can keep away from Gnome 3, but for the time being I'm grateful that they aren't jumping on the unity/Gnome 3 bandwagon.

Take-off seems to be where most problems occur. If you remember, the reason that Columbia burned up in re-entry was because of a problem that occurred at take-off (foam flying off and ripping a hole in the wing). If Columbia would have had a successful take-off, they most likely would have had a successful re-entry. I think take-off is more dangerous because you are not strapped to millions of pound of explosives when you re-enter.

I just use the $6.99 t-zones from t-mobile and get unlimited data and tethering via bluetooth/usb. I takes a little messing with my proxy settings, but with the switchproxy add-on and Firefox that isn't a big deal.