Hi, How can I make Gnome 3 look and behave as Gnome 2? Is it possible?

Every major distribution is switching to Gnome 3. I find it annoying.

Is there a distro that makes Gnome 3 look and feel like Gnome 2? Forget free software, I would pay them real money! :-)

I don't know and I don't know.

Yes they are but not straight away. Debian 6 (Squeeze) is Gnome 2.30 and will be supported for at least the next 2 years and become old-stable after that with some limited support for a little while longer.

Gnome 3 has fallback mode, you don't have to use gnome-shell if you don't want to. I'm sure the Gnome Foundation AND distributions such as Debian would greatly appreciate your monetary donation to their work.

It is probably time to try out lxde (lubuntu) and xfce (xubuntu.)

If you really want to stick with gnome 2.X there is also Mate Desktop-

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=121162

If you dont want to move to a distro that is still using gnome 2.X or Mate, the best thing would be to try Xfce4.

Not every distro is, theres a few that dont have gnome 2.X or gnome 3.x.

Some of the distros 'moving' to gnome 3 arent using the gnome 3 desktop, eg ubuntu. Not that unity is any more popular, or usable, than gnome 3....

(or whatever your distro supports)

Then select the "GNOME Classic" (or whatever) GDM session when you log in.

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I find XFCE to be the most Gnome2-like of the DEs (after Gnome2 itself, of course). I run LXDE, but it definitely is not as full-featured - lightness does have its price.

Thank you All for your kind answers.

As result, I am in process of installing Debian on my laptop. Hopefully by the time its support/updates run out, the DE developers will move from Unity to Sanity.

I have tried both XFCE and LXDE and I agree that they are ok but not quite as good as Gnome 2. I thought Gnome 2 was perfect. Why change it.

I also heard about a Gnome 2 fork called Mate, available on Arch. But I am kind of tired trying so many distros.

Unity is NOT gnome 3, or gnome 2. It uses GTK+ (like gnome) but is not a gnome desktop.

Dont expect unity to become any more like gnome 2.X, if anything it will be moving further away from the gnome 2.X design ideas.

Hey I'm using fvwm, which I've been using for years. Why do software manufacturers think that people want the user interface changed every year to something completely different? What's the point?

Because it was perfect. When you're a Desktop developer, development becomes an end in itself. If the interface can't be improved, that's when it's time to trash it and start all over. If desktop developers ran the world, we'd be eating our cornflakes with a redesigned spoon every few years.

Free software will take care of this. KDE has forked, and the resulting Desktop, Trinity, is on my computer right now. After more than a year with KDE4, using a new version of KDE3 is pure pleasure. There's already a fork of Gnome? Of course there is. Compared to Gnome 3, KDE4 is... KDE3? Turns out that KDE4 was not so bad.

I hope that XFCE will come to embrace its role as the desktop that doesn't go crazy on its user base.

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I work in car industry. I am an engineer. Implementing a new feature in a car is not that simple. You first try it on a small scale, you constantly watch safety performance, cost, customer reaction... You have to, otherwise you put people at risk, you waste money on tools, etc.

Developing a new desktop interface and dumping it on all users is an approach easier than it needs to be. I fail to see the "challenge" in it. If the kernel was developed with the same level of liberty, there would be no Linux as we know it.

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This is one of the flaws of the Free Software philosophy. If you think that the developers are there to make your life easier, you are misinformed. Windows is "market driven", and that means that everyday users are supposed to matter, but Linux is "technology driven", and users don't matter. Even though KDE4 was hugely disruptive to my personal and creative life, when I complained about it I was repeatedly told to go learn C++. KDE4 was when I stopped recommending Linux to my Windows-based friends. And Gnome 3 makes KDE4 look gentle and moderate by comparison.

This is interesting, I am an automotive technician, in other words the sucker who fixes the problems in the real world that the engineers let the car go out with. I see way to many cars with features that work nothing like they are supposed to and are sold to the public as the be all and end all in car safety or convenience. Engineers, and I mean this with all due respect, do not seem to actually respond to the feedback they are given by the public and even less to the feedback given by the technicians that spend all day everyday doing warranty work.

Would you like a list of the warranty claims I do all day everyday? I'd be more than happy to provide one if it will help design better, safer, more environmentally friendly, and also (extremely importantly) a car that is owner and technician friendly.

Sorry about the off topic but you're worried about the look of Gnome, I find that interesting.

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k3lt01... I worry about the Gnome 3 looks because I am a Gnome user. I do have a lot of respect for Gnome developers and I actually find Gnome 3 impressive. But it also makes my work harder. Now I can just accept it or I can switch to something else.

I just wanted to bring up this aspect of things: Gnome is no longer just a cool product of great programmers. Today it is also something that millions of users depend upon. If you are responsible, this aspect of your product makes your design and business decisions much more complicated. That is the real challenge.

You may disagree but that is what makes cars complicated today. You are right though that cars are not perfect. But, you know, I can't be everywhere! :-)

Excellent reply ;-)