Unity is made to work with Compiz but not with the desktop cube because
workspaces in Unity are different. There are other problems. If you install
GNOME 3 it wrecks Unity and vice versa.

Unity and GNOME 3 will take some getting used to and neither is ready for
prime time. They have released GNOME 3 with GNOME Shell included but have
put back the date to September for final release. Canonical is determined to
have Unity out with 11.04, but it likely won't mature till 11.10.

As for GNOME 2.32 it is on a short leash. You will be able to install it in
11.04, but Shuttleworth has already said that it won't be in the 11.10
repositories. GNOME will likely phase it out as well as they want GNOME 3 to
be accepted.

The problem with both Unity and GNOME 3 is that it changes the way users
work and the workflow is not as smooth or intuitive to my way of thinking.
There is a different paradigm at work. Things are moving from virtual
desktops and spatial concepts to workspaces based on activities. Most users
do not like being forced to change and there will be some backlash. I think
that both Canonical and GNOME re prepared for some, but maybe it will be
more than they figure. Who can say?

There are choices. You could use KDE or XFCE which still are spatial. You
could switch to either Debian which because it is based on stable it will be
at least 2 years before these changes hit. You could switch to Mint but it
will not be able to forestall change unless they develop their own GNOME 3
based desktop. Finally you do not have to upgrade. Maverick has another year
and Lucid has 2 more years of support.

I have already upgraded to Natty but I use KDE and things are just getting
better. It is nice to have been through this cycle and now have a mature and
powerful desktop. I have used both Unity and GNOME 3 extensively over the
past few months. I could get used to either, but prefer KDE. Unity has much
potential aso you need to see past the problems and look to the future. It
is all part of the push t make Ubuntu more like the Mac that Windows. That
is not going to change whatever people think or do. Canonical just sees Mac
OS as driving the desktop forward and Windows playing catch up. The sooner
people buy into it the happier they will be, IMO. Otherwise they should be
shopping for a new desktop environment or distro.