the desktops of my formative years were two: MATE and Windows Explorer. because of this, I knew straight away that GNOME wasn't what I wanted, and Ubuntu's deci

the desktops of my formative years were two: MATE and Windows Explorer. because of this, I knew straight away that GNOME wasn't what I wanted, and Ubuntu's decision to adopt GNOME 3 after all the hate that seemingly everybody under the sun had for the desktop (even if I guess this was a problem for Unity too, though I loved it) TOTALLY baffled me. that being said, I fell in love with Adwaita's design and the GTK headerbar applications for their simplicity and elegance. I so fell in love with it that I begrudgingly decided to switch to GNOME desktop on Ubuntu, just so these applications would feel native. a few years in, and i'll be real; you're absolutely right about how GNOME expects you to totally overhaul your workflow. that being said I regret to say that now I am fully married to the GNOME workflow and can't even bear to use MATE anymore (other than for brief stark fits of Compiz nostalgia)