I’m quite impressed with the new version of Ubuntu, and because it’s a LTS release it means one less VM I need to maintain during the next release cycle. I generally keep a VM of the latest LTS and release version, as well as tracking the development version from Beta 1. This results in 3 VMs (or two if the current release version is also a LTS).
I also maintain a VM of Debian testing, as well as a really minimal version of stable and unstable (I run stable physically as well).
And then I have several minimal webservers, which are running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS or Debian stable.
But I digress.
I think this version of Ubuntu is important because it will be around for 5 years and will form the basis of the Linux strategy for a number of organisations. I would certainly recommend it highly, and think it does a good job of providing a decent desktop experience for users of all levels (and particularly non-technical users).