I am one of the users who actually like the new Unity desktop environment. Although, I will admit, it does need a few tweaks but that is understandable for such a new desktop environment. As far as the 6 month release, I do not believe that this hurts Ubuntu at all. Every so often, Ubuntu releases a Long Term Support (LTS) version which is always meant to be the stable version. Every other version is considered bleeding edge and is meant for more advanced users and early adopters. This is the best way for Ubuntu work out bugs with new features like Unity. I usually recommend the latest LTS to people who are new Linux and I am installing and configuring it anyway so my users can go straight to using it not configuring it,

Agreed! If you don't like Unity, you can easily use GNOME, KDE, or whatever. Thats the beauty of Ubuntu and Linux in general.

This is a good point to ponder especially considering the selection music available in the Ubuntu One music store as well other multi-platform cloud services available from Cononical.