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Arch Linux has switched to Gnome 2, so I have it on my laptop now. It uses Gnome Shell instead of Ubuntu's Unity. My initial impression is that it is merely change for the sake of change instead of an actual improvement. Many people are going to hate it as passionately as others hate KDE 4.<BR>
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I don't see any way to put icons or documents on the desktop. I sometimes like to put working documents on the desktop and I see no reason why someone should decide that I should not be able to do that.<BR>
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The old menus are gone. The newer method takes more work. I'm probably going to rely more on Cairo Dock.<BR>
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The old applets are gone. The new ones take up more room and there are a few bugs, such as not showing up in the same position after rebooting, even when they are supposed to be locked to one position.<BR>
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Multiple desktops are gone. At least, I haven't found out how to make it work.<BR>
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It also wants to use an accelerated graphics card or Gnome Shell will not run. The new Metacity window manager runs instead and its new look is very similar to Gnome Shell but doesn't have the same capabilities. My laptop has accelerated graphics but it wasn't turned on and I had to find out how to turn it on.<BR>
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I can't change the screensaver. Before I could run xscreensaver or Gnome Screensaver. The only thing I can change is how long before it kicks in.<BR>
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Hmm. I haven't found anything yet that I consider an improvement.
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