The hype surrounding the upcoming 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) was fairly significant. Leading this charge was the much-anticipated switch to Xmir. Well, thanks to a few show-stopping issues (such as dual-monitor support), Xmir has been pushed back to 14.04. Is this a big deal? Yes and no. Yes, because Xmir will be a major change to the sub-systems of Ubuntu. No, because Xmir must be faultless when released — otherwise, the backlash will knock Canonical back so far in the past that they’ll have a hard time recovering in the eyes of the Linux community.
Beyond Xmir, the biggest change from .04 to .10 is the much-maligned inclusion of Smart Scopes. What are Smart Scopes? Let me explain it in the simplest terms as possible.