It's a Linux release. Basically it updates the base image to include all of the latest versions of things from the last six months. If you really wanted to see everything that changed, you could do a diff of http://packages.ubuntu.com/maverick/allpackages and whatever release you are running. But yes; this release is just a cleaned up version of the previous release with updated versions of all of the internal parts. But in my mind, that's all I really want, and I am very glad Ubuntu is still updating regularly.

Same feeling here when I saw the top "new" feature the link lists is a new wallpaper. sigh

It felt that way for me too... then on further reflection I think system-wide multi-touch support is a BIG deal. There may not be any applications taking advantage of it now, but I predict that in a few months this will give iPads and android tablets a run for the money.

Not really - they blog post specifically said they would only look at the visible changes, so there aren't going to be that many changes.

And the concept of paid apps are pretty damn nice, seeing as this a great way for canonical to make money and might make money for a few developers too.