The funny thing is that, like you, I used to have very strong opinions about the desktop designs I wanted to use. For instance, when Ubuntu's Unity first came o

The funny thing is that, like you, I used to have very strong opinions about the desktop designs I wanted to use. For instance, when Ubuntu's Unity first came out I was appalled. But as I'm getting older, and after being forced to use (begrudgingly, at first) alternative desktop metaphors at work, I've noticed that it does not really matter as much (to me) as I always thought. Sure, there are things that you've learned to love and now think you cannot live without. And there are features that other approaches had that I though were completely pointless and a step backwards rather than forwards. Or at least just useless. But now, I think it's all not so bad, actually. I'm writing this on Ubuntu 18.04, and I remember how much I used to despise the vertical icon bar on the left, that shows both currently running apps and also allows you to start often used programs with a single click. Now I just don't see it anymore. Except when I need to use it, and then I suddenly don't see anything wrong with it, anymore. Mind you, I still have a list of must-have features for desktops. For instance, having virtual desktops that I can quickly change between using keyboard shortcuts. But my list of "must haves" has definitely changed over time (maybe even gotten smaller) -- which shows that the word "must" was apparently never right in the first place.