I ditched GNOME and KDE years ago for XFCE.  I hope that stays sane.

Yep, times are changing. Linux (and OSX) became real desktop competitors. Microsoft responded, and brought out win 7. Now (usability) rolls seem to be somewhat reversed.

Windows is fast and efficient. Power management is good. For the most part it works with good backwards compatability. The UI can be figured out in a matter of minutes, and pretty much anything for windows that came out in the last 10 years will either run, or run after prompting you about setting a compatability mode.

The Linux environment is going backwards.  Fedora 15 is a good example of that. Gnome 3 being a major part, and another example things like ethernet interfaces renaming from ethX to emX is another. Sure there are reasons for it (there must be), but from a usability standpoint it seems like change fo the sake of change.

As a proprietry linux software developer making a living on writing a certain linux app, its a major pain knowing that eth->em is going to break a bunch of stuff.

Im on fedora 14 now, and am quite happy, but too much is changed in the newest gen softwares that are fedora 15. I went to set runlevel to 3 in /etc/inittab for a test machine. oh, cant do that with inittab anymore, have to learn systemd now. Sure all answers were findable on the net, but its gets in your way. Linux used to be a pretty static environment that was always getting faster and more capable, why cant things have stayed that way?

Don’t SHOW Gnome 3 to people.  Make them use the flipping thing for a week.  They’ll kill you dead.

I use FluxBox.  I could care less about spending my life dealing with the complexity of installing the zillions of moronically-named packages required to run GNOME.

I just want to get work done.  I don’t really care about having a 1/2 dozen daemons running on my system all so that I can see the weather in my toolbar.

http://people.freebsd.org/~adamw/gnome_kde_deps/gnome2-lite.png

GNOME 3 Sucks Seriously.  But there’s a bigger problem.  Whether you love GNOME 3 (in which case I don’t want you working for me) or hate it, the MUCH BIGGER QUESTION is, “IS this what passes for innovation in Linux distributions?”  Take me back to Slackware and Kernel 1.2.6!

I’ve been a Linux user for about 7 years. After KDE4 came out in 2008 (I think) I thought it was messy and confusing and decided to use Gnome 2 only. And I was a happy dude, for Gnome 2 was all I could ask for. After installing Fedora 15 I was shocked to be using this piece of crap called Gnome 3. So I decided to give KDE4 another try and was surprised to see that it had matured a lot and is now actually pretty damn good. So one could argue that Gnome 3, being the crap that is, lacks maturity and there’s still plenty of room for improvement. But the problem is I need to get my work done right now and I don’t have the time to muck around. So come on Gnome 3 developers, where are you guys/girls? Hiding behind the shadows? I would like to hear your arguments on this. If Linus says your desktop manager is crap then it is crap. Ditto.

I think the main point here is that we are able to switch to wherever we want. It Linus uses Xfce, and my mother prefers gnome3, and my uncle KDE 900, what is the problem?
I really hate when we all look barbaric enough to need a single idea fit all our brains. We are different, do whatever you want. <- that's s a period.
Sebastian.

Yet another example how GNU/Linux community still applies themselves the old tactic of war: Divide & Conquer. Someone should figure out already that community is vital especially as it is so small already, divide it wisely if not at all.

Anyway using this new shell for a while (as a secondary OS) I think this “unholy mess” is supposed to make it more Mac like with it’s menu location and buttons. Though the dock tries to be something from Windows 7 and Mac at the same time. Run menu is odd at best.

Trying to sell this big change (in one swoop) for older folks would be nearly impossible.

I’m a power user and I love it. At first I kept coming back to the fallback mode, but now I actually miss Gnome Shell when I have to use anything else. Of course it is different, but that’s the point – as for the “open new terminal” problem – just middle-click the terminal icon and you’ll get a new window. It’s like that with most things, you’re just so used to how it was done back in Gnome 2 that you assume it can’t be done at all now if not like it was done with Gnome 2…

I agree with Mr. Torvalds.  I’ve been a Gnome2 user since KDE made its blunder with version 4.  I was with him back then when he decried that unholy mess and switched to Gnome.  I cannot stand the mess that is Gnome3.  If there were a way to switch back and forth between version 2 and 3 I think most users would choose 2.

Newbies don’t count anyway.  They’ll try out Linux and then they’ll leave when they realize how much trouble it is to setup games through WINE.  Don’t want ‘em, don’t need ‘em.  Keep your current users happy, and tell the newbs to go run Lion.

Torvalds is just another Forienor with an attitude .  What took him so long to ditch Gnome?  Xfce is not exactly the best of the best, but it is simple and slick.

I’ve used Linux since 1986.  I’ve tried all kinds of window managers and systems. The one thing I’ve learned is that programmers will change just because of change.

For example, I loved kde3, the apps, the ability to integrate other paradigms with keyboard shortcuts. But then came kde4 – pretty, but a wholly new interface. Furthermore, the variable feature that I loved in kword got busted. I switched to gnome2, even though it was as configurable. Then I learned about gnome3 and tested it. Yuck City.

I don’t want to get old and not do things because they’re different (my wife is that way). If there’s a better way of greasing the wheel, I’m there. So, instead of fighting, I’ve decided to become like the Borg.

A colleague of mine (Erik Naggum, now deceased), once said that you need applications that give you all the tools to control the interface. He used fvwm. I’ve since returned to that same window manager. I’ve written modular perl and bash apps that allow me to run apps pretty much like the tiling wms, full, but in separate workspaces. I compare my new machines to teleport machines. I press a button and the computer go to the workspace where the app resides. If it’s there, it stops, if not it loads and runs the app. My computer creates workspaces on the fly. Docks are not needed, because I’ve modified the kill window to iconfify those apps that I or someone accidentally try to delete (i.e. Skype). Pagers are not necessary, because the menu goes directly to the app. What I tell people is, I don’t want to look in the portal to find where I’ve been or where I’m going. I just want to work.

Now you might say, I’m old fashioned. Nope, I still test other distros. If I see something I like, I just add it to my fvwm. For instance, I added xrandr menu resolutions to my fvwm menu the other day, because my brother’s monitor was way smaller than mine. That way, I never have to edit his startup or xorg.conf file.  My system is fast, runs kde4 and gnome apps, but most of all, it fits me and the client/family I serve.

I’m nowhere near the programmer Linus and others are. But I suspicion that people feel that they can sway others by being super critical. Personally, I feel, that kde4, gnome3, unity, have good and bad. Like the Borg, I just absorb what  feels good.

Would it really be so hard to have a general principle for new releases: before you release it to the wild, make sure that it is at least nearly as good, and at least nearly as stable as the previous version!  I’m still getting major stability and usability problems with KDE 4.6, pulseaudio, network manager, policykit etc that never happened with KDE 3.5.10 and plain alsa.  Gnome 2 is pretty good (a few niggles still remain), but increasingly they are removing useful features; Gnome 3 doesn’t look good at all.

It took me a good hour to figure things out. Longer to find some plugins that made life better. Then some docs to make apps launch in the desktop spaces I want to find them in. Just like the old days. That the goal is to make a netbook experience better, I agree Gnome3 is that. As a desktop solution …. Still thinking about it.

I like to shutdown, not suspend. I’d prefer shutdown in the menu on the left. But Gnome3 is targeted at netbooks. So suspend is the ‘preferred’ solution. So I live with pressing the alt key and then selecting shutdown.

Being a lefty, I’d prefer the hotspot on the right for example. I do more desktop to desktop movement. So having the hotspot on the left, then zoom across to the right is irritating. I don’t like the applications view. Too many apps. Some that aren’t even installed show up. A tool like alacarte (menu editor) would be nice.

Noting new removable media has been added is still a mystery.

But this is the first release. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. More plugins will follow. A decent tuning app after that.

I remember the switch to gnome from the twm window manager. It was confusing. It wasn’t done yet. The whole root menu thing seemed too Windows like. But I got use to it, incorporated the multiple desktops into my work habits. Gnome3 will be like that.

Not that I’ll every use a netbook. I like a BIG user experience. Clumsy mouse (three buttons thank you, like any decent Unix sysadmin) and an old firm keyboard, one that doesn’t move under my fingers.

I chose openbox and abandoned the conventional desktop! I now use Crunchbang!