I was having problems getting my atheros ar5007 wireless working using
8.04 I downloaded the 8.10 release and was able to use the card
without any setup or hoops. After some playing with 8.10 I decided to
forget the dual boot and only run Ubuntu. The signal meter showed a
full 100% so I question any loss of strength.

The problem is I started the lan to check it out and make mods to the
router only to loose the wifi connection and have failed to get it
back( the wifi is not listed under networks ). This however is an
improvement because Ubuntu 8.04 would lock up anytime the lan
connection was turned on in the BIOS, now the lan works without a hitch.

Because I haven't needed the wifi I have left it alone, but hope to
get it working again in the future. I may dual boot Ubuntu if that is
what is needed to make my system use wifi while I am not at the home
front. This seems excessive but I would rather use Ubuntu than Vista,
I was not happy with Vista and that is what made me look for
alternatives, and I have been happy with what I can do with Ubuntu, so
there you have it. Most likely I will boot from a USB flash drive
rather than change my system.

Note:
I noticed that the device is called wlan() as configured in the
kernel, rather than wifi() or ath() as it was using the madwifi
snapshot for the atheros 5007 card.