The silly ribbon in office... the horrible look and feel...can't find anything.. the "search box" is useless unless you tweak it to find everything ON the drive (hidden, etc)... my preference is Windows 2000 style, sorry. XP blew, too, they took out functionality I needed (and I tweaked to get back.) I'm totally lost on 7.
The solution for Ubuntu... as stated elsewere, install Xubuntu or Mint, instead. Then you can set it up however you want.
Unity, and I hear the coming Windows 8.. WILL be optimized for portable/touchscreen devices. When the devices support these interfaces, fine. But I do believe a fork needs to be implemented between the desktop and touchscreen interfaces, as the input methods and screens are totally different. Bravo for Unity on mobile, but please don't force it on the desktop.