What People Are Saying About GNOME [Part 4]

3901: Better access to configuration options.
Better package manager (as in KDE).
Faster boot.

3.x ugh.

3902: I would work hard to have it installed with the default Ubuntu install. I find Unity to be slower and a challenge to use.

You are doing a great job. The YouTube Gnome / Blender videos could use some editing to make the shorter and more to the point. Otherwise, great stuff.

3903: Reduce emphasis on touch-friendly design.
Recude emphasis on unnecessary addons like social media integration when basic features are incomplete, buggy, poorly-documented, nearly impossible to discover or missing entirely.
Retain compatibility with Compiz when using Gnome Shell.

The most common interface for any device running GNOME by far is still the mouse. Large graphics are nice for smartphones with tiny, cheap touchscreens, but these devices rarely if ever run GNOME. Also, reducing customizability to "editing the CSS or config files by hand" is a bad move when those same files have no, poor, or hard-to-find documentation. Breaking compatibility with Compiz in Gnome Shell is also a bad idea, since it's very popular and GNOME does not provide any alternatives to Compiz's window management functions.

3904: The overall experience of 2 was better

3905: 1. better monitor detection
2. automatic detection and configuration of multiple monitors
3. unity is cool and all, but it shouldnt be the default.

One thing has never changed in the last decades of software development and that is the way we physically interface with computers. That is to say, the mouse and keyboard. I suspect that until we start implanting computers in our brains, that many people would benefit from streamlining those interactions.

Things like macros to simulate series of movements from the mouse, a la autohotkey would be awesome. automagically assigning arbitrary but persistent keyboard shortcuts to common commands would also be neato. with teeny reminders, people would surely adopt something like pressing ctrl alt t to run a terminal. run chrome frequently and get a little balloon when you run it saying "you can now use ctrl z (or whatever) to run this app."

just throwing out ideas. ;-)

3906: get rid of unity, KISS, and keep keyboard control.

3907: If I choose to disable gnome-shell, I would like to have more of an amount of customization available in "fallback" GTK3.

I wish there were more configuration options within gnome-shell. (Moving the dock, displaying applications first, ability to move the notification area.

3908: An easier way to create new shortcuts. Keep up to date on UI/UX advances, such as advances in tablet UI, etc...

Allow customization of the front-end, without having the front-end having to ride on top of a gnome UI.

3909: less mouse click/keystroke
easier to eyes as well as Brain !
focus on work not application (If I wanted to write a latter I should see ways of doing that particular task and should not see only Office suite)

i.e. Primary focus should be on Task not on Application.

Keep it simple.

Application should be grouped so as to find it faster.
There should be less mouse click/or Key stroke to find/open application.
UI should be developed keeping in mind that user is using PC for the first time in life.

3910: add more user configurable options
no permanently visible top bar
remove the need to install extra software to change options

allow more customization

3911: Easier configuration: There are too many things that are configurable, but only through gconf-editor.

I wish the network manager would allow multiple simultaneous VPN connections. I can do it by running the VPN clients manually, but not through the network manager.

Empathy needs OTR support. I understand that it would be ideal if that were offered directly by the base protocol, but it's not. I still need private communications, and if I can't get it in empathy, I can't use empathy.

3912: (haven't used 3.x) Gnome lets me do what I need and doesn't get in my way. I can't think of anything big to change, just small nit-picky things like not having nautilus bookmarks collapse into a sub-menu when it goes over some threshold .

I haven't used Gnome 3.x, but I have tried Unity and I find it hinders me in several ways (such as just seeing my programs... where's my App menu or list?) If newer versions of Gnome don't get in my way and still let me access my files/programs easily, I'll be happy.

I don't mind big changes to the interface, I know I'll get used to new things. However, I don't like it when it's (A) un-intuitive or hard to figure out, and (B) more difficult to do things that were easy before.

3913: Make a Gnome 3 mode that looks, feels, and behaves like gnome2

3914: 1. I'd bring back the taskbar.
2. I'd bring back minimize.
3. I'd make more features user-configurable.

3915: 1) more ability to customize things through an easy to use GUI
2) an "expert" switch/option which opens up the ability to customzie

3916: Bring back the taskbar.
Focus less on mouse interactions, more on keyboard.

3917: - fix mouse x11 themes in gnome2
- make stacked taskbars stay in their proper place after a fullscreen application was run
- expedia adware :P

keep supporting gnome2

3918: Go back to the Gnome 2 style

3919: Gnome 3 shell
more configurable
nautilus would ALWAYS see inserted media without needing to be restarted

Long live gnome 2. Death to the gnome 3 shell. But at least it is better than Unity (but that isn't saying much. Gnome 3 shell is the second worst desktop currently on the market. Gnome 2 is one of the best. How sad is that?

3920: 1. More in house control of my environment without Editing CSS/XML/or code bases like that. I would like options that I can enter into the settings. {Menu bar font size, Icon size, Icon distance, Favorites bar size, Favorites bar icon size, Font sizes}
2. Better themes.
3. Small features that make usability key. {Num lock on startup option}

I love the way 3.2 looks and where it is headed. Keep up the good work guys and gals.

3921: task bar, and start menu

stick to defining the API, and leave the UI work to skinners and widget makers.

3922: Ease of UI customization, speed, memory footprint.

3923: As long as terminal is good, and a standard browser works then nothing else really matters for me.

3924: Listen to your users, don't try to predict the future.

Give up the wild, shot in the dark experimentation!

3925: Make GNOME more accessible from the trackpad. If four-finger swipe or something similar hadn't been implemented yet for the expose feature, it would be nice to include it even when there's already a keyboard key for the expose feature.

I hope AMd and nVidia do their part to make your DE more enjoyable using their proprietary drivers. I know it's not in anyone's control but theirs; I just wish for a miracle to give me a powerful AND awesome Linux experience. :)

Keep up the good work.

3926: I feel like I am in the minority in loving GNOME 3 and gnome-shell. It works fantastically well for my window management and I feel I am much more productive. I find it is particularly good with new users when I introduce them to the system. It is a step away from what they are useful, but intuitive at the same time.

3927: stop messing up the UI, or give me better tools to customize it

better networking controls/integration with files in /etc

3928: I'd make it much easier to customize.

Stop force feeding user shitty design paradigms.

3929: For Gnome 3 - I want my window buttons back, I would like to clicking to launch an application to start a new instance of that application, I miss my familiar desktop metaphors that have worked since windows 3.11 .
For Gnome 2 - I was pretty happy with gnome2, I just wish more of the gconf settings were exposed in the graphical settings manager dialogs.

I think it's important to realize that people will rise to standard you set for them. If you treat them like children, they will behave as such. This translates to desktop design as well. There is a large continuum of user skill levels and interests. A good design is not one that merely makes it easy for those who have never used a PC, but one that can grow with them all the way from Mr "I only use facebook" to the chief architect of the Gnome Desktop. Furthermore, GNU/Linux's core audience still includes a lot of developers. If our desktop software is not appealing to developers IN ADDITION to whatever other target market it is a failure. I know it's harder to develop growable interfaces, but that's why we're working in this space.

3930: Speed!
Speed!
Speed!

I would love to see a goal set for GNOME 4.0

I think think the focus should be on providing asynchronous desktop sync. GNOME should not only be able to supplement web applications and SaaS, but it should compete with it.

Imagine a framework that any GNOME application can use to sync its settings once connected to the other machine.

3931: The title bar has nowhere you can change how it behaves. The default letters are too large/bold. Notification balloons are larger than in Gnome 2 (where there were more than large enough). It took me several minutes to figure out how to get the application menu open, and I've worked with computers nearly all my professional like (30+ years). The dock is ripped off from Mac OS X, but is nowhere near as good. Seriously, how is Gnome 3 an improvement over Gnome 2?

Gnome 3 is an exercise in "if it ain't broke, fix it". What was wrong with the Gnome 2 GUI? I admit "Preferences" and "Administration" menus could be confusing, but a simple hierarchial menu structure has worked fine for Windows for 25+ years, worked well for Gnome 2, and other OSs. You should have worked on making the user interface more consistent across all apps, something Linux has struggled with ever since it was invented. Too many open source cooks using different tool kits. Standardization is important for a GUI, you want the application interfaces to behave in a similar fashion. I see apps all the time throwing up dialog boxes or preference interfaces lacking an OK/Accept/Save button. How can you be sure the changes you made have been accepted by the system? I tried Unity on Ubuntu 11.10, and was immediately turned off by the adoption of the Mac OS menu interface on the top title/status bar. This was a bad idea when Apple first adopted it back in the 1980's, and the succeeding years have not made it any more efficient or desirable.

3932: 1) Weather back on the status bar.
2) For some reason, with multiple displays, only one display has multiple desktops? I used to have 4x2560x1024 desktops, now I have however many I'm using + 1 on my primary monitor, and ONLY ONE DESKTOP for my secondary monitor. Why did this change? Can I have back my multiple desktops spanning both monitors?
3) There is not three, only Zuul.

Gnome wasn't broke, and you tried to fix it anyway. While I'm slowly getting used to the radical redesign, I don't see why you guys decided to start from scratch.

3933: Open Trash only on double click (i always open two put probably just me)

Keep up the good work. I like a desktop where I can get things done. I am not worried about bells and whistles or other fancy or pretty features that get in the way of productivity and me using my computer for the things I love doing best.

3934: Give the users back some control, add options, make it tweakable again.

A lot of the recent complaints are not totally your fault. I Understand that Gnome 3 was a rewrite and this is a bit of a "young project". That being said there was definitely some regression in terms of usability.

3935: 1) Add options for things like DPI adjustment (my LCD knows how big it is, quit ignoring it),

2) Allow customization of GDM screen, gtk theme, icon theme, etc.

3) Allow for removal of ALT+` behavior, and let ALT+tab go through all of the open windows.

Configuration options are not evil. Really. They're not. Empowering your users through well-organized & documented configuration screens is a lot less condescending than just assuming you know better.

3936: I would like gnome shell to be the default desktop for Ubuntu.
Get rid of Evolution.

Keep up the great work!

3937: - Replace it's window manager with a tiling window manager like XMonad.
- Improve the image viewer so it autoreloads like Okular does.
- (Unrelated to GNOME) Replace X11 with something better, hopefully some kind of networked windowing system built around OpenGL or OpenGL|ES.

Stop reducing configurability. GNOME 2 is bad enough, but GNOME 3 doesn't even have a proper theme configuration tool. What good is a Linux desktop environment if it's not configurable.

3938: Good job!

3939: more modular: I use ion3/notion with gdm and what is missing are things like an auto mounter which I have to start nautilus for (which sucks). It used to simply be `gnome-volume-manager` but that was removed for some reason and the network tool cannot be used without the panel. I believe there are several others tools that are useless without the panel. I would like to see these broken out into standalones so it can benefit everyone, not just core desktop users. The alternatives are not great, just barely adequate.

An option for a ion/notion like stacked tiling wm: KDE has something similar but it's really pathetic, a real halfarsed job. I think there is room for gnome to handle this natively, attractively and even without such an emphasis on keyboard-only navigation as ion/notion and similar have. If users realised there were other paradigms than the floating-window that could better manage their screen real-estate. It takes a real adventurer to use linux to begin with and even more courage to drop the standard WM in favour of a tiling one - I want to see the barrier for entry dropped.

desktop widgets: my ion/notion setup doesn't work as well on laptops/netbooks (network management again) so I like to have a desktop with great big buttons and widgets. KDE has the right idea but falls short and dashboards are wasteful fluff that are rarely used. Widgets, even pedestrian things like a folder-view for displaying contents of ~/Desktop with a few filters, would be an improvement. The ability to organise these in a grid ala Android widgets/Deus Ex inventory/Opera quick dial etc. would be awesome.

Tip of the hat:
Gnome2 has been solid as a rock for years now and if I can't have my ion/notion setup, I use Gnome2. For daily use, for development, for my parents desktop, as a recommendation to others etc. It behaves predictably, customisable enough with themes/fonts/icons/wallpapers and, despite the occasional lack of options, does what I need it to whenever I need it to do something.

Wag of the finger:
Gnome3 looks like a cheap tart. Stop trying to compete with Apple, it's embarrassing. It's like lipstick on a pig. GNU/Linux is like a bodybuilder who wears baggy clothes - you can't see the strength underneath but it's there and available and uncompromising. The DE we put on top of Linux should be pushing forwards and accentuating Linux's strengths, not spinning it's wheels adding more and more shiny things that do nothing new and are changed again next month. "Gnome3: Simply Beautiful" blergh. Find some vision, please. Empower users and do it with class but don't blind them with new opacity settings and cute animations.

With the new direction that Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Gnome3, Mozilla et al are taking, I think I'm going to have to stop using them altogether - you guys are off on your own tangent and we're screaming out for you to stop, but you're like a lemming to a cliff. The old guard are not your target demographic anymore and if you keep at it I'll leave you to your suicide.

3940: restore traditional window management tools
enable common customization tasks such as layout of the panel

stop telling the users what you think they should want and start listening to them telling you what they want.

3941: resource heavy

3942: Make it easier to create custom launchers for apps.

Give more options for tweaking the look and layout by default (don't have to go find/install packages in yum).

A setting to automatically open a new window of the app without having to right click and select.

3943: 1. Scrap Gnome 3 and go back.
2. Tell gnome team that its not like KDE3 to KDE4 but gnome2 to gnome3 is terrible.
3. Make an ergonomic design for general users and customization for others.

1. I agree Gnome3 may be a better software design then gnome2.
But NOT ALL SOFTWARE models are successful so its better even now
to stop the work on gnome3 and go back to gnome2.
2. I am not a gnome contributor. Gnome3 made me so pissed off that
I had to scrape even gnome2 from My Notebook/desktop/ Home computer/
and 3 of my servers and switch to KDE4.
3. Consider some Ergonomic study before some Major Change.

3944: I don't want Gnome 3

Sorry that you think that Windows style is desirable.

I started using unix on a PDP 11/45. ( so, yes, long long ago )

I prefer command line interface.
I am switching away from Gnome.
In fact, I did not upgrade my fedora because of Gnome.

3945: Get rid of the 3D stuff. I moved to xfce after using 3.0.

3946: Get rid of the Gnome Shell.
WIMP.
Get rid of the Gnome Shell.

Get rid of the Gnome Shell. This should be an option, not the rule.

3947: Easier menu management
Don't remove features
Make more configuration options available by default.

Vastly prefer the 2.x shell. Please keep maintaining it.

3948: better documentation, everything I find seems to be applicable to gnome 2.x without mentioning it; it takes experimentation to find that the documentation is useless for gnome3.

good api documentation. I like the developer console but have no idea what to do with it.

3949: A return to the destop, not a tablet based DE.

You lost me, I'm happily using KDE. I was a happy Gnome2 user for many years. If I wanted someone to restrict my ability to modify my DE, I'd use windows.

3950: - Have a TASKBAR
- Developer community that's more responsive to community needs and wishes.
- Have a Desktop that can have freely arrangeable files (though Nautilus can do this after changing a setting).

If you do another survey, please make clear whether you're talking about Gnome 2 or 3. If not, don't expect valid results.
(I filled this in talking about Gnome 3...)

3951: Remove unity. Make it easier to configure GDM. I like to use tiling window managers, but they don't integrate well with gnome.

3952: More customization options, themeability from 2.X, fonts in application menu.

Keep on doing what your doing, but make sure to learn from your own and others' mistakes :D

3953: 1. The alt-tab functionality is quite possibly the most irritating "development" I've encountered with Gnome3. Why can't I alt-tab to all windows? I'm aware of Alt-~, but my muscle memory over the last 18 years has trained me to use Alt-tab. It worked in Windows 3.1 and everything up to Gnome 2.x.

2. Give me my task bar back.

3. Don't make me /guess/ that features are there, like shutdown. Hooray for you that you're standing on the "everyone should use sleep" platform, but the power management for my laptop is BROKEN and I don't want to make it sleep; I want to turn it off. Perhaps power management will get fixed faster this way, but you're pissing off a whole lot of people with broken power management in the meantime.

Who is really using a tablet with GNOME? Why on earth are you adopting a tablet interface for a window manager that's designed to run on desktops?

3954: A more useful top bar (less waste of space)
Sound scheme options (don't like my default startup sound!)

I like it. It's simple but it works. I'm yet to decide, though, whether it will help me be more efficient. It sure looks better.

3955: Completely fix all the annoying "quirks" in the user interface toolkit "GTK" - It basically sucks that it is just inconsistent in it's dialogue boxes. Cursor placement or focus when an input box appears and character selection inside input boxes are not smooth enough. They are clunky.

Make gnome an interactive desktop experience for everybody especially disabled people. Instead of just a semi-molly coddled hub of a desktop that beyond it's basic usage provides nothing more than something to stare at blankly whilst getting a vdu tan.

Take bug reports seriously instead of being blatantly rude to people who are using or have tried to use the software - have found a problem and instead of just writing off, stop using and ignoring the software - they actually report the issue to the gnome developers. Responding rudely to these people as the gnome devs are collectively known for only needs to continue if they are going to develop gnome and not share it with people.

My constructive criticisms are a tad harsh but you should know that I do not use gnome for mainly the given reasons.
I think that the gnome software effort is great and has come a long way during the years I have used Linux. I commend them on this.

Gnome is good, it could be great but it just doesn't grab me because little of it makes sense for my work flow and feature needs as it stands.

Good luck improving gnome and have fun!

3956: Nothing. I like it the way it is!

Keep up the great work. You have something that actually works--don't mess with it so much that you ruin it.

3957: The dock should be always visible, not only when you go to activities.

Notification icons should also always be visible. I liked the way the default was in GNOME 2.

More customization options are desperately needed in GNOME 3.x's current state.

An stable, yet completely uncustomizable desktop is about as good as a horribly buggy desktop if it destroys my workflow.

3958: Its speed on older hardware
Accessibility/Existence of advanced preferences (gconf&co)

3959: 1. More user-configurable options (especially in GNOME 3.x)
2. Sane defaults
3. Easier way to create a default profile

Please listen to the voices of the users, and don't just assume that we have no idea what we're talking about. Just because someone has a dissenting view does NOT mean they are wrong.

Innovation is great, and I applaud the forward thinking that went into GNOME 3. However, the execution of that forward thinking leaves a lot to be desired. Change is difficult for most people, and I believe you would have had a much easier transition with GNOME 3 if you enabled users to (mostly) emulate the look and feel of GNOME 2, adopting new features as we are ready to do so.

3960: less bloat, more accessible to new users

GNOME 3 needs a lot more work but keep at it

3961: I won't be looking forward to GNOME 3 much until the Panel is fully restored. Keep up the good work aside from that.

3962: More configuration options!
They don't need to be used by the average user, but power users appreciate the flexibility to customize their desktop for highest productivity.

3963: No more of that crazy Unity and touchy tablet UI crap on my non touch computer.

3964: unobtrusive borders and less wasted functional screen area
easier console access
speed

3965: Have simplified defaults, but do not remove the ability to customize things. In general, I still think that it's true that most Linux users stick with Linux because they do not feel restrained like the do under proprietary OSes. However, if you remove the ability for legitimate customizations from GNOME, it begins to represent the restrictive proprietary OSes in the name of "simplicity". Only the defaults should be simple. Anything else is using "simplicity" and "cleanliness" as an excuse to support an extreme vision of the One True Way. A "One True Way" does not exist, and mirages of such things exist only temporarily.

Ok, this goes out to Ubuntu as well:
Using Unity on the Desktop (not netbook/tablet) is like putting pace cars on the autobahn. They may look pretty, but they just get in the way and hinder the experience. Get out of my way. Don't suck up real estate. Do only what I need, do it simply, and do it quietly. Unity really is a broken interface for the desktop. The one-ring-to-rule-them-all mentality need not be held tightly. Gnome 2 hit a sweet spot. Change is not always equivalent to improvement. Improve the Gnome 2 use case. Let your market drive your efforts, as in the end, the customer (market) is always right (even in the case where your customers are not paying/contributing customers).

3966: 1. Nothing.
2. Nothing.
3. Nothing.

I love GNOME 2, and I'm not resistant to change when it's good and necessary. But GNOME 3 is unusable for me (slow, hard to configure properly, horrible multi-monitor problems). I will be sticking to GNOME 2 as long as possible and will be leaving GNOME altogether if GNOME continues to destroy the good thing it had.

3967: Need an email / calendar app that talks to MS exchange properly. I have to use an exchange server for work. The evolution support for it sucks, especially for calendaring.

I don't find the preferences system very intuitive for finding various things sometimes.

There has been a move towards less freedom to customise things, in the name of a simplified interface, over the last several years. I think this was a mixed blessing, I like to be able to tweak an customise things.

3968: 1) Keep it simple

2) Don't focus on what Microsoft or Apple are doing

3) Always remember the original audience (don't dumb it down)

3969: Kill GNOME 3, revive GNOME 2.

Decide whether GNOME is for tablets and phones or if it is for desktops and laptops.

3970: I can't even put into words how awful Gnome 3.x is in comparison - let's put it this way, I would simply re-implement Gnome 2.x with updated libraries - 3.x is completely unusable, and is an insult to those of us who actually, you know, use a computer.

Dig your heads out of your asses, try listening to what your users want, or risk becoming BeOS.

Good luck, I'm not holding out much hope, considering the outright disdain you have shown the users.

I'm moving to XFCE.

3971: Adopt Xfce and ditch this Gnome 3.0 crap.

Gnome 3.0 jumped the shark. It's a steaming pile of crap and I'm now using Xfce. Way to go!

3972: Make things CUSTOMIZABLE!
Make things prettier than windows by default.
Lighten up the memory load

Great work...

3973: Not particularly in Gnome, but Compiz could use an improved grid plugin. Would be nice to make it work as dmw, such that the grid can be resized to any size.

I'm very happy with Gnome 2.x and I'm sad it will stop being supported. With that said, I have not yet used Gnome 3.x; hopefully I'll be able to customize it to my liking.

Keep up the good work, and thank you for this great desktop environment.

3974: Fix the panel in 3.2! I can't add or move stuff.
Make GNOME more configurable in general.
Make the indicator icons have more useful mouse-over.

3975: Increase ease of customization, modularity of GNOME 3 features, more bacon.

3976: As of GNOME 3.2... not a whole lot.

I'm actually surprised GNOME 3 in general is getting so much bad press. It's so much more intuitive, integrated and easier to use that the 2.x line. I'd even go so far as to say it's more intuitive than OS X 10.7.2. Apple could take a hint or two from you guys. Keep up the good work!

3977: Gnome Shell
Gnome Shell
Gnome Shell

Get rid of Gnome Shell

3978: the ugly colour scheme.
the 2nd toolbar
entire window manager.

Copy KDE.

3979: Completely ditch 3, you are going for dumbing it down to an oblivion, and that is not what linux is about. Dont over complicate something that works great as it is, just perfect what is already there instead of fucking it up by attempting to broaden its appeal.

3980: 1. Provide a "classic" desktop option in Gnome 3
2. Improve the feedback in Gnome 3. The system does not provide sufficient hints on how to use it.
3. Improve information presented in Gnome 3 so that a new user has a chance of figuring it out.

Gnome 3 is an interesting technology but a UI disaster. It is unfriendly, unhelpful, non-intuitive and difficult to use to accomplish tasks. It asks me to throw away 20+ years of experience and knowledge. I use computers for content creation and business applications - Gnome 3 is not designed to help these uses. When I use a tablet or smartphone it is Apple or Android, not Gnome.

3981: Add more customizable graphical settings
Implement something like KDE where you can easily switch between a more standard destkop and a clutter type interface.
Get rid of tango themes.

3982: 1. Let me actually configure my printer! The dumbed down printers dialog sucks.

2. Would like to be able to control the volume on all the channels of my sound card, not just the front speakers.

3. I don't mind the incidental dialogue windows popping up where they do, just let me move the dang things if I need to. There are times when I need to sees something under them in order to put in the correct info. I end up wasting time closing the window, capturing the info on something else and then reopening so I can input it in the requester.

3983: 1. compatibility with gnome 3.0+ in ubuntu
2. desktop management in 3.0+
3. window management in 3.0+

Keep up the great work! :)

3984: Window management

Customizability - It's difficult to install custom shell themes, and to my knowledge, there is no way to change the color of the activities bar at the top of the screen.

3985: Don't introduce replacement software until it is more highly developed. (to the point where non CLI users can work with it)

3986: Gnome Shell
Mono

3987: I want my tab system on the bottom back.

3988: 1- Adding / integrating mouse gestures.
2- A native launcher
3- ?

Amazing work guys. I go to KDE from time to time but always come back to Gnome.

3989: Get rid of search based navigation as opposed to menus with keyboard shortcuts

Allow multiple icons for multiple instances of an application

3990: More easily customizable menus.

(I like the rest, a lot...)

Thanks for all your hard work!

3991: Overall GNOME 2 was unobtrusive enough to never be a problem. Not great, not bad; perfect. GNOME 3 is pretty great, it makes some innovative moves like the notification tab and the exploded view of windows and the choosing of windows of the same app in the alt+tab view, those are all good. That said, I HATE the new dock.

So, if I could change three things in GNOME 3, all three things would have to do with the dock.

Innovation is important and there's a lot to like about GNOME 3 but overall I'm happier/more comfortable with Xmonad + GNOME 2.

3992: Allow more configuration by the user

Please listen to the users, when it comes to the desktop interface, you have set yourself up as thinking you know what the users need, when almost everyone uses there computer differently, please make gnome 3 a one-size-fits-all desktop again.

3993: Bring back the old interface not the buggy mess that exists in Gnome 3 (as an alternative)
Allow support for multiple monitors at different resolutions

3994: Nothing, keep going, GNOME is excellent

DO NOT COPY UNITY! DO NOT COMMIT SUICIDE WITH CANONICAL! DO NOT MAKE ME GO TO XFCE!

3995: More customization
Better menu items distribution
See 1

3996: 1. better styling [themeing] system
2. better styling [themeing] system
3. some kind of Firefox' DOM Inspector equivalent

3997: 1) Bring the window list back
2) More configurability.
3) A traditional program list somewhere

I don't agree at all with the mentality that desktop environments should be simplified to the point that they are easily usable on a tablet. The result is a crappy desktop experience, because all the convenient functionality has been eliminated away.

I also really don't like the anti-customization mentality that the Gnome developers seem to have. "Want to change your power settings? Gnome users don't do that." I've switched from Gnome to xfce, and I'm staying, because xfce lets me rearrange my panels the way I want them and - gasp - even have a list of windows, which I can then click on to bring them forward! I can even change my power management options.

It would be fantastic if gnome-screensaver worked.

3998: Kill off Gnome 3.

I wish it was more configurable. I find it boring. I would still be using KDE if it werent for 4.x.

3999: Customization. Not just of window decorations and themes, but of the actual layout of gnome programs and utilities.

Some things seem like they are dumbed down way to much.

I would make it more "Power user friendly"

It would be cool if gnome had a "power users" feature wherein users could select an option "I am a power user - I give up any rights to having support in exchange for more options"

4000: Gnome 2.x + Compiz + Docky + Windows style drag & drop menus. That's all I want. Only a menu system that works intuitively is missing, otherwise Gnome 2.x would be pretty close to perfect.

Fixing the bug in Compiz that makes the cursors not change properly when changing a theme would be cool too. But that is not really a Gnome problem.

Oh, and a more complete/versatile configuration panel would be nice, but I can live without it. By complete/versatile I mean MORE choice, not less.

Stop re-inventing the wheel and just fix the damn bugs.