Why is HAL being made the default when it's not ready?

[Dave M G]

Ubuntu Users / Developers,

I got Intrepid Ibex 8.10 installed, and now my Wacom tablet totally 
sucks. The eraser and mouse don't work, the stylus is stuck in 
"absolute" mode...

I looked on the 'net and discovered that this is because Ubuntu is now 
using something called "HAL" for handling all input. I'm sure there's 
some good reason for doing that... but how about doing it *when it's ready*?

I tried using the instructions at 
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wacom , but the "Manual setup using 
xorg.conf" results in either X being completely hosed, or my Wacom 
tablet not working at all.

Since Intrepid blew away my previous Hardy boot options (which, I didn't 
really want it to do, but that's another story), I'm now stuck with a 
tablet that is almost unusable.

I believe the current internet vernacular for this situation is 
something like "Ubuntu HAL upgrade = FAIL".

So how long do I have to push back any graphics projects while waiting 
for Wacom support to work again?

-- 
Dave M G