After installing Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop, I did not need to use tethering on it for a while. I did use it a bit with 8.04 but the setup was less than ideal. I had to go through this. I was just about to do that again when I came across Blueman. Blueman is a replacement of the bluetooth applet in Ubuntu, you know the one that sits next to your clock, which allows for much more than just the basic. I was able to easily connect my phone and allow my laptop to connect to the internet through it. I thought it was a great addition to Ubuntu. To learn more about blueman and to add it to your Ubuntu, go to bigbrovar's blog post.