I wish I was as lucky as you seem to have been .. and I think quite a few others might feel similarly, if together.jolla has been any indication.

Re: Ubuntu .. I don't think it's remotely similar to desktop, unfortunately. The unity menu on the side ... it does ... nothing. It's just a few web app bookmarks. Multi-tasking in its current iteration isn't multitasking at all (apps are immediately suspended when not focused), what they mean by multitasking is just an easier to access / deal with task manager, accessed by gesture, than Andoid (or iOS / WP). Somewhere along the line, their vision seems to have lost focus ... the poweful, multi-tasking, smooth UX they originally talked about and envisioned seems to have been replaced with a disjointed mess of web apps and search integration. However I strongly suspect that much of the Ubuntu community will be quite vocal about not finding this acceptable, and it'll be fixed swiftly, or alternate UX schemes will be made and distributed by the community.