I just installed 10.04 on an HP mini (using it now). Is the server edition that far behind the curve or are you just being conservative?
BTW, I frikkin love Ubuntu. It's going to seep into the market quietly over the next couple/few years. I'm so glad to see Gates and Jobs having some of their market taken away, even if it's only a couple of percentage points.
If you use Ubuntu as a notebook/desktop, check out Guake if you're unfamiliar with it:
Initially, when I set this server up, I wanted to just leave it as 8.04 since that's a long term support versions (LTS). My theory then was upgrades were generally bad news, and so doing fewer of them is best.
However, I upgraded a laptop to 10.04 (the new LTS version) and was not pleased with the results. The initial install went fine but then on boot up the screen would go blank. The problem was 10.04 didn't recognize the limits of my laptop's screen (its about 6 years old). I fixed that manually, but now it has some sort of hang problem, perhaps related to the screen saver.
So... my confidence in 10.04 is a bit shaken, and I'm not upgrading my home server to it until I get more confidence in it. That'll probably not be before the next version (10.10?) comes out.
For the server, I don't need the latest and greatest. What I need is stability, and older versions with all the patches in place give me that. And that means upgrading more conservatively. I'll upgrade it to 9.10 and stop there for now.
If you use Ubuntu as a notebook/desktop, check out Guake if you're unfamiliar with it:
http://guake.org
Meh. Guake doesn't look that special to me. I can't see anything there that Snow Leopard's terminal doesn't do. Not that SL's terminal is so special either.
But this reminds me of a complaint I have had for years about Linux: they use repulsive and nonsensical names that absolutely repel those who might switch to Linux. Guake sounds like the lizard people from Planet X. Or a gay version of Quake.
Linux will never go anywhere until it adopts common descriptive names for its basic utilities. Like "Notepad", "Terminal", etc. Grandma and Cousin Jed are never ever going to run a program with a name like Guake.
The Linux folk are nerds and think these obscure names are wonderful. Well, maybe for nerds. But I'm pretty nerdy and I don't like these names either. They're just flat-out annoying. This is a major reason for the failure of Linux on the desktop, along with the ongoing rivalry and issues surrounding the Gnome versus KDE desktops and libraries (hey, Linux guys, pick ONE!).