Gnome 2 was indeed pretty ok though not very comfortable for lack of configurability. Gnome 3 is really the problem which is why there's so many that replicate

Gnome 2 was indeed pretty ok though not very comfortable for lack of configurability. Gnome 3 is really the problem which is why there's so many that replicate gnome 2, like cinnamon and mate. Gnome 3 is really like KDE 4, too much messing around for the sake of it. But another thing I really like about KDE is that there's not a giant behind it like redhat, they're free from commercial motives to make their own choices.