I too was a long time 10.04 user and very happy with the distro. I did
however realize that sooner or latter support for 10.04 was going to go
away so I decided to try a new version of Linux Mint. So I installled Mint
13 on my system and started having problems. The system would freeze and
require a power down to regain control. This was the kind of thing that
had driven me away from Windows when I first started experimenting with
Linux.

So I switched back to Ubuntu 12.04 since that is a long term support
release. When the Unity desktop came up I hated it with a passion. I was
ready to switch back to 10.04 but instead spent some additional time with
the new setup. The more I used it the more I liked it and decided that it
was indeed something that I could live with. So I am still running 12.04
on my clone box and enjoying it.

Don't let me give you the impression that it is perfect because it isn't.
I'm not sure if it is my lack of knowledge about Unity and Linux in general
or if there are still some real bugs that need worked out. The bottom line
is that I have a working computer that does everything I want to do with a
comptuer and I'm not worried that just as I am becoming comfortable with
Windows 7 at my workplace that Windows 8 is now waiting in the wings. I
also don't have to worry about my anti-virus and malware software being up
to date. Most of all I am not thinking about buying Microsoft Office 11 or
12 to keep up with the ever changing office suite that Microsoft had
decided is a good revenue stream. So life moves on and so do operating
systems and applications. Even Linux.