True, and I personally find the default setting ok using Unity 2d (desktop with blacklisted graphics card) and Unity (netbook). However this same logic means that the Launcher position could be made optional without detriment.

12.04 is currently in an 'interesting' state, so I'm waiting for the repositories to update before exploring Unity 5 on the netbook.

There is one thing that really annoy me with the autohide feature. When you want to close the window the launcher often gets in the way. My mother got a little annoyed at this since I upgraded her computer to 11.10.

You might find you'd like to change the "edge reveal timeout" which is actually the time it waits before the launcher reveals. The default is set to 150ms, but I like it much better at 300ms. You can also change the launcher edge to the right, but that probably has more issues with scrolling. All of that is set in CompizConfig Settings Manager.

Interesting, what was throwing her off? The way the orange-circle-x close window button is now hidden until you mouse over the window title bar?

http://i.imgur.com/zKgJ0.png

Good, because that was not the case when they first took away my beloved Ubuntu Netbook Remix and replaced it with Unity.