I have had a chip on my shoulder for the 2.x series Gnome since its inception. The design decision to go with “less is more” was possibly the worst decision in desktop Linux history because it assumes that users want simplicity and the cost trade off for it is flexibility. Thankfully we have another choice when it comes to the Linux desktop.
What encouraged this rant is an article by Computer World that lambastes Gnome for some of these decisions. Good article, bad DE.