Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop Edition offers a lot to like, especially if you have heavy interest in cloud computing; you'll undoubtedly appreciate a lot of the changes this version of the OS incorporates. But compared to what we saw with 10.04, there hasn't been a great deal of innovation—this is, at best, an incremental release, and it doesn't build as much as it could on the 10.04's accomplishments. Not every version of every operating system will be a radical rethink, of course, but given how far Canonical went in making 10.04 an Everyman Linux, we hoped that 10.10 would continue that mission—and it hasn't. For those who particularly need or want the new features and better social integration, it's nice to have these things. But most dedicated Linux users don't consider them must-haves, and Ubuntu's revisions aren't yet at the point where everyday users will abandon their other music and cloud-based file-storage solutions in favor of these choices, even if they're free. Most people need more, and need it to be easier, and Canonical still hasn't completely addressed these issues.
Ultimately, Ubuntu 10.10 ("Maverick Meerkat") Desktop Edition strikes us as a "gateway" release: not much new on the surface, but enough tweaks to encourage you to anticipate great things just around the corner. If Ubuntu One Mobile and the Windows client live up to their promise, Canonical may have found its ideal way to package Linux for the masses. We're not sure it's enough to make Canonical and Ubuntu household names yet, but it's a step in the right direction.
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