Y'know... I read through some 200-odd messages here yesterday, mostly preaching doom and gloom regarding this update... I was almost trepidatious when I arrived within my WiFi zone last night...

. I had development stuff on the tablet
. I had SVN versions of software on the tablet
. I had the "browser fix" .deb installed on the tablet
. I had bora, chinook, and diablo apps installed on the tablet
. I had no problem with Modest not notifying me about mail (IMAP/Gmail), but didn't want one, either.
. Regardless, I chose to "install"
. Immediately got a message about the "browser fix", so I removed that via the Application Manager, and chose to 'install' the upgrade.
. I have had no problems whatsoever!

okay, okay... The "contacts" applet was on my screen... and the Tableteer applet was on the screen, but c'mon... that's easily solved. Yeah, a bunch of PDF documentation was re-installed in my documents directory, but I cleaned it out without trouble... and, yeah, my extras repository was disabled, so I re-enabled it.

No rebooting loops, no removing batteries, no reflashing the tablet, and no real issues... reading here, one might think that I was the exception to the norm -- but I'm willing to bet I'm just being more vocal about my experience than the rest of the 'silent majority'.