I do not recognize any of the difficulties you mention. I was a Gnome 2 user since 2.4, 2.6, right up until the end. Around 2.10 things stabilized, wel before 2

I do not recognize any of the difficulties you mention. I was a Gnome 2 user since 2.4, 2.6, right up until the end. Around 2.10 things stabilized, wel before 2010. I loved it, and I still like Gnome 2's fork. I tried to like 3, but unfortunately I don't see how the mobile-criticism isn't valid, or how it made things easier or better. I wasn't and am not someone who tweaks and tunes, but Gnome 3 was too much simplification, for me. I can imagine it's tough to read if you're a Gnome committer, but I would hope the points raised are seen (although evidence seems to indicate it isn't), not the fact that there is criticism. The way I see it, Gnome now is a bit of an anti-gui: it seems to be in retreat of actually providing GUI for doing things. This may be what some people want, mobile guis are the same (and I protest that too), but whereas before I had the impression Gnome was big enough to suit different sorts, now it seems those who don't like the narrower goal Gnome has set for itself just need to move on. And I have, in a great reversal of history, KDE actually feels like the modern Gnome 2 that never was (I disliked KDE 3 and 4 with a passion). I don't think modern Gnome is the right DE to be the default in nearly every distro, because it has become so opinionated. There are other DEs that to me seem better suited to that role. Then again, I couldn't tell you why Android-iOS (I barely see any difference) is what it is, so maybe I'm just old, different or some sort of UI-minority.