My thoughts after reading one article are:
Properly functioning 3d hardware.. I thought I had that with my graphics
card but I still cant get things to work properly. I have no qualms
about saying with LTS past its term but if they are moving to a new
desktop - what if anything does that affect - like software?

I suspect that they will stick with their tried and true software, but
this is just speculation on my part. They are always tweaking their
software apps. Rumours persist that Evolution will be replaced by
Thunderbird for example.

Change is good, but too much change at once may cause a backlash.
Canonical is smart enough to know what users will put up and what they
won't. I suspect after using GNOME Shell that they realised that it
was too radical to be adopted by their user base and that it will take
time to grow on them. I also think that they foresaw this coming and
have been thinking about this for some time. The next logical step for
Ubuntu is to have its own desktop environment and Unity is a step in
that direction.

I only throw this out for discussion. It may also keep some users from
upgrading to Maverick and then to Natty which is not necessarily a bad
thing in times of change. If you are using Lucid, then don't just look
ahead to Maverick, but look beyond to Natty. Lucid is LTS and there is
no need to go thorough this and be a guinea pig. Just sit tight and
see where things go. You have three years of support from last April.
If you have already upgraded to Maverick, remember that it will expire
1 year before Lucid, so you are on the upgrade treadmill whether you
like it or not.

I dont have problems with the OS changing. If they are looking to change
because it will offer a better overall experience in speed or ability or
apps or some long term idea they have -- then I just have to believe
they are working it through and moving people along at some type of pace
they think is appropriate.

If they screw up -- it will be like MS and XP. XP is still on 90% of my
clients machines with no reason or desire to move on (in the clients mind).

Choice is good and knowing what is coming can help us to make the right
decisions now. People who are thinking about upgrading to Maverick should
think before they leap based on this new information. You cannot downgrade,
only upgrade.

Perhaps it would help more people join the guinea pig group if Ubuntu
created an option to downgrade as well. Then again, maybe that's why they
came out with the live cd version and the usb stick versions... to test
drive them before you buy them. But as everyone else has said, if you want
to maintain up to date server updates, etc... then just test driving won't
cut it past the service date so LTS it is unless they choose to allow
downgrading as well.

I installed Unity. It is slower and more cumbersome to use than Gnome.
Especially slow.

They are aware of that and are planning changes including moving to Compiz
from Mutter. Unity has been a work in progress, but this announcement should
give it some impetus and breath some life into Compiz. I am not sure how
this will affect users who do not have compositing. The last article is
worth a read.

www.jonobacon.org/.../
smspillaz.wordpress.com/.../
www.webupd8.org/.../...mpiz-instead-of-mutter.html
www.osnews.com/.../Ubuntu_To_Switch_to_Unity_on_Desktop