I've seen people accuse him of trying to be the next Apple, or worse: the next Microsoft.

I found an Ubuntu bugthread where he was trying to defend this decision. It seemed to boil down to "We want it on the left and only on the left for reasons which we'll show you in a version or three, but not now". Which I found condescending.

I was tempted to add to the end of the thread this: "I have a touchscreen. I am right-handed. I want the taskbar on the right." But it would been pointless because Shuttleworth had long stopped responding.

Wade.