I disagree. On stock Ubuntu, there is no normal situation you'll run into where you must use a terminal. If you decide to do something that requires a terminal, that's a different story. But basically every normal operation you'd do on windows GUI (and more...), you have a GUI option available on Ubuntu; it is the Windows of the Linux world, and it behaves as such.
Cmon my ubuntu stock can't even remember my sound input options, which are reset on each reboot. There's no option for that on the GUI. Also upgrading linux can be a big pain for non-experts. I've been using dualboot windows/linux for a long time, and I simply don't upgrade ubuntu: I'll do a fresh install if I want/need the new version.
