Hi, so… kind of an awkward start, but I’ve been very critical of GNOME for a long time because it had a UI that reminded me of Windows 8, and I was constantly complaining that it didn’t support a workflow more like that of MATE or KDE, and just assumed the GNOME team had zero sympathy for people who are used to a traditional desktop environment and don’t use a touchscreen with their PC.
Somehow, every time I would make the criticism, everyone would just agree with me about how awful it was, and no one ever brought up GNOME Classic or anything like that. The problem with MATE and KDE as alternatives is that… they aren’t as well maintained and have a lot of odd, random problems that don’t take a lot of effort to run into. So, I found myself continuing to go back to GNOME even though I didn’t like the UI, simply because it actually works, and wound up feeling kind of “stuck” with a UI I don’t care for just to have something well-maintained that works most of the time. Like I was constantly trying to decide whether I wanted to deal with modern GNOME for a more polished experience and stability while having to fight with a touch-based UI, or MATE/KDE because of the better workflow for desktop users, and kept bouncing between those three.
Well, somehow I stumbled upon a reference to GNOME Classic in RHEL’s documentation, and wondered what it was… I tried it for the first time just a few days ago, and now I’m feeling like I have the best of both worlds. Something that has a workflow more like MATE (with the drop-down menus to pick applications and a separate taskbar at the bottom), but has the underlying stability of GNOME.
I just want to say, I’m really happy that this feature was implemented, and hope that something like it is maintained as an option going forwards. I was installing MATE/KDE to basically get what GNOME Classic was offering, and had no idea GNOME had ever made any concessions to people who prefer a more traditional desktop experience. So, thanks for offering that compromise. I’m not sure when it was added, but I’m glad it’s there.