I felt the same way so for my Linux laptop I moved over to Plasma. It's a real desktop with sane defaults, and I can recommend it. Obviously not quite the same

I felt the same way so for my Linux laptop I moved over to Plasma. It's a real desktop with sane defaults, and I can recommend it. Obviously not quite the same level of polish as the Mac, but try it, you may be pleasantly surprised. Gnome3 has been such a regression of user experience, I've never had a good time using it.