Gnome 1 was so configurable, that I couldn't get on with Gnome 2 at all. I haven't tried it in over 10 years at this point... So I can't speak to recent changes

Gnome 1 was so configurable, that I couldn't get on with Gnome 2 at all. I haven't tried it in over 10 years at this point... So I can't speak to recent changes. There was a lot I actually liked about it [Gnome 1] -- but way too many features were either missing or narrowly restricted for me to build a fast and comfortable workflow on. I went to KDE for a while and then went all out, switched to Xmonad, and had a much better time. Then I questioned the need for a DE at all. Unfortunately, with all the problems I run into in keeping my Haskell libraries up-to-date, that I decided to try Gnome 3, and I've been using it by itself for most of the past couple years. So... Thank you Gnome developers for reminding me that you have no clue what users need! ... No, seriously, I think Gnome 1 had a lot over Gnome 2, and it amuses me to no end that people prefer Gnome 2 over Gnome 3.