No, but they are not going to get casual users of other varieties by sitting around copying what's already out there. I'm reserving judgment on HUD for now, but I have a great deal of respect for an OS willing to push the boundary.

Of course, I really want Ubuntu to get into the touch space for that reason as well, because that's where casual users seem to be going.

How on earth are they going to get into the touch space?

It's already fragmented enough, not to mention that most tablets/phones are locked down and will prevent people installing an alternative OS anyway.

The only way would be to produce their own hardware since they won't make any money licensing their OS.

If they're as good at hardware design as they are at software.. I think I'll pass.

There are actually plenty (for some value of plenty :)) casual Ubuntu users. Most of them have had Ubunutu set-up by somebody competent, but once they have it, they can use it as casually as they like. The only reason they even need somebody to install it is that they don't realize it's an alternative.

"were"

there "were" plenty of casual ubuntu users. soon there will be plenty of casual mint users.

The amount of converters depends on how many people are telling the casual Ubuntu users what they want instead of letting them decide.