Gnome 3 is a step backward from its predecessor and sacrificed functionality for mostly aesthetical reasons. I don't have a problem with a 'simplifed' UI, but t

Gnome 3 is a step backward from its predecessor and sacrificed functionality for mostly aesthetical reasons. I don't have a problem with a 'simplifed' UI, but the fact that Gnome 3 is now the default DE for most Linux distros is worrying, and to me is a sign that Linux on the desktop will not get anywhere anytime soon. From the article: 1) G3 is stable: "stable" like these weird crash notifications I regularly got on 3 different laptop models (that did not in fact provide any info on what app/service actually crashed...) whenever I resumed from sleep, or "stable" like the Gnome dev indicating they will break GTK3 backward compatibilty whenever they feel like it? So much stable, we're going to be tired of stabling. 2) "Stays out of the way": like not even having a minimize button by default? So when you have your windows lined up, and switch to another one just to check something, now you just... ho wait you don't get to "just" because there is no minimize action to get rid of it. I like this example because on one hand they claim it is not needed[1] even when a most basic example can prove them wrong, but on the other hand they have published a first-party plugin/extension to add this and a number of other "fixes". So double the failure. TFA author also claims G3's chrome takes less space: like having a damn clock take 80% of the top bar? Seriously. And also, "MATE uses two panels so it takes more space" ...you mean exactly like G3 once you enable the taskbar? Plus in other DE you can easily fuse / insert the taskbar into another panel, not sure you can in G3. In short G3 is ignoring basic UI rules we have known to be true since the 1980s. 3) "Display switching actually works" ...hu, just like in XFCE? Never had a problem in XFCE. In G3 though I occasionally had it not detect when I unplugged an external screen, which means I was left with a blank desktop background where all of my inputs would only take effect on a now 'ghost' screen. 4) Many extensions: probably. I only know that some of them exist solely to fix basic shortcomings of the default UI. I also know you have to use a browser+plugin to download these, and this feels...wrong? 5) Dynamic workspace: this is the only thing that G3 does right, i.e. not just properly, but also better than the competition. I really wish other DE would implement something vaguely as intuitive. If they did, for many users G3 would have no competitive advantage left. 6) Plenty of themes: Huh. OK. I guess. I also need to add that the G3 Bluetooth devices app/panel is really aggravating. BT sucks in Linux to begin with, but the G3 UI is really making it worse. At first I thought it was only a OS-level thing, but then I discovered XFCE doesn't have this problem. [1] It always get me when a OS or DE dev claims you "don't need" a basic feature: you're not building an app, you're building a platform, you do not know how it's going to be used, that's the point of a platform.