If you install gnome tweak tool then you can set all buttons to the title bar of your windows, except for the menu button on the left side. As extension develo

If you install gnome tweak tool then you can set all buttons to the title bar of your windows, except for the menu button on the left side. As extension developer I agree with your sentiment, all the missing parts are slowly returning, Gnome 3 shell is not bad, it was just put out to the world way too early. I was very critical when I saw the first versions of gnome shell but things are really going well for it. It has many development languages to choose from like Python, C, C++, Vala and even Javascript. It uses CSS as styling. Several backends to output to X, Wayland coming, HTML (which is impressive and good use when owncloud is integrated). Soon you can use your desktop everywhere not like VNC but realtime.