I think this underlines what's been said before about Ubuntu. If you
want stable and everyday use then stick with the LTS versions, i.e.
10.04 LTS, and leave the cutting edge alone ( or at least run on a
test machine / virtual machine ). Seem to remember reading somewhere
that the April releases tend to be less stable than the October ones.

Overall I'll stay with Lucid for my main system and may try out the
later ones in Virtual Box but possibly won't have the time to do much
with them apart from a getting a general idea how things are going
with Ubuntu.

Usually with a kernel update the start screen lists the older ones and
you have the option of booting with an earlier one - or has this been
removed from 10.10 ?