It was a big change in workflow, and the developers gave off a paternalistic vibe (that I guess had been there in Gnome development for years, but Gnome 3 was t

It was a big change in workflow, and the developers gave off a paternalistic vibe (that I guess had been there in Gnome development for years, but Gnome 3 was the first time that I felt like it really impacted me). I used Gnome 2 because it did what I wanted. Gnome 3 felt like style over substance (I'll agree wholeheartedly on "downright pretty UI"), and it couldn't be configured to act in a way I liked. I felt like I wasn't the kind of user they were targeting, so I switched to Mate when it came out. Depending on who you ask, Gnome 3 was either a long-overdue redesign with great results or a dependable tool ditching its legacy to chase after some UX designer's dream. It's been enough time. Might be time for me to look at it again. My patterns have shifted some, and it's possible that it would be a better fit for me now than it was then.