I usually jump on Ubuntu releases well before they are released. This round of alphas & betas was a little tough to get through (X won't start, can't find peripherals) but before going final and since then, everything has been working nicely on a couple of different machines.

I've changed jobs several times with pay cuts so that I could be interested in my job. I found out early that although having lots of money is nice, after a while it's just money. Being interested and enjoying your job is a bigger reward than you may realize and after you've mastered your domain, the money will come.