A while ago, I wrote about both Gnome 3 and Ubuntu Unity, as the new faces of the Linux desktop. Well, since then, the two desktops have been released and a lot of heat generated. I still haven't (properly) used either, but have seen Gnome 3 used by a colleague at work, who likes it a lot (it certainly seems fast and responsive).

Like many, I'm torn. The "problem" is that the classic (previous/old) Gnome desktop (Gnome 2.30) works really well for me now. As someone who's used Gnome since the first (admit it, not so great) version, it's matured into something that looks great and works very well.

So, why do I have to change? The issue is that the new version is such a major change. Although Gnome 3 has a "classic" desktop shell option (fallback mode), I think it is much more restricted than v2. It is also an option that will be removed I believe. So maybe a Gnome 2 fork is worth doing?

I'll wait and see what Debian does. So far, Debian Unstable is still Gnome 2 but this is now a dead-end. Currently, there is no alternative Gnome future. If I don't like it, I'll switch.