I'm on Ubuntu 11.04 atm. I plan to upgrade to 12.04 in July (after its had a few months to bed in), but I'm weary of what to expect from their next UI update, given their recent history. Unless I hear good things, I'll be moving over to Xubuntu.
Alternatively, you could go with XMonad! I made the jump after experiencing Canonical's Unity and proceeding to search for alternatives. Once you make the switch, you won't want to use anything else. :-)
My current approach is Android ICS on a Transformer Prime, with an Ubuntu chroot for running server-side apps when developing (with vim, git, etc), and VNC connection if I need to run full desktop apps.
If only Firefox Mobile included development tools I could mostly ditch the VNC part.
Some ideas seem kind of interesting, like the HUD thingy, but I very much doubt it will be enough to bring disappointed users back to using Ubuntu. Xubuntu is quite good if you're looking for something close to the gnome 2 experience.
The desktop is just there to launch and switch between applications. I want it to stay simple and to keep out of my way. I've not tried Xubuntu yet, but it sounds/looks like it will be better at satisfying these requirements for me.
"The desktop is just there to launch and switch between applications."
If that's how you look at the desktop, then you should definitely look at Lubuntu. It's just windows and a panel. When you look at an Xfce desktop, it looks like Xfce. When you look at Lubuntu, it's just windows and a panel.
