If the dash/overview was the default view Gnome 3 would be much better!

[Copper Bezel]

As a big fan of Shell, I agree with x-shaney-x, and it's something I noticed early on. It's nothing to do with Unity or desktop icons - the overview is like Android's home screen or Win 8's Start screen, and it ought to be the default fallback place to be. Partly because it is, but inconsistently.

At first, I did find t odd that when the last window on a workspace is closed, I drop back to the Overview. I got it, though, when I realised that the Overview just is the place you "fall back" to. So then it became odd that this doesn't apply to the moment I log in - naturally, the first thing I'm going to do is launch something - and why I can select an empty workspace at all.

I don't buy the argument about a clean desktop. I want my desktop clean so crap isn't hidden under my windows, or competing for my attention with non-maxed windows, not so that I can stare at my pretty wallpaper. I also want to access my stuff as efficiently as possible. So the default position when nothing is running ought to be the place I keep my stuff. (This is not the same thing as the overlappity mish-mash of the Win XP-Gnome 2 way of doing things, so please don't think I'm getting nostalgic, though I suppose it's no different from combining the benefits of desktop icons with the interaction mode of the Start menu, which is exactly what Win 8 does, although Shell also tosses in window management.)

But truth be told, I'd settle for a fix to the first problem, that key bindings don't work in the Overview.

[handy]

Using Openbox as its WM would certainly sort out Gnome 3's inherent problems!

[kevinmchapman]

Using Openbox as its WM would certainly sort out Gnome 3's inherent problems!

Not sure it would. My main complaint in Gnome Shell is the window manager window placement. It lacks a "smart" placement setting like Xfce and E17 (ie. non-full-size windows being placed as far apart as possible to avoid overlap). Good as Openbox is, it lacks exactly that feature.

Maybe I've missed the point, but what else does Openbox offer over Mutter, bar a few keybindings?

[TeamRocket1233c]

There's also adding a taskbar to GNOME 3, as well as a start menu, as well as other tweaks to improve the DE's usability.

[x-shaney-x]

There's also adding a taskbar to GNOME 3, as well as a start menu, as well as other tweaks to improve the DE's usability.

Those can all be done easily via extensions

[kevinmchapman]

There's also adding a taskbar to GNOME 3, as well as a start menu, as well as other tweaks to improve the DE's usability.

So when you say "improve the DE's usability", you really mean "make it like the Gnome2 I got used to"

[pelle.k]

Not sure it would. My main complaint in Gnome Shell is the window manager window placement. It lacks a "smart" placement setting like Xfce and E17 (ie. non-full-size windows being placed as far apart as possible to avoid overlap). Good as Openbox is, it lacks exactly that feature.

Maybe I've missed the point, but what else does Openbox offer over Mutter, bar a few keybindings?

Hurray! Great minds think alike! Compiz and kwin also has "smart" window placement (and quite a few more window placement modes). Cascading is sooo 1999. Why would i want all my windows to default to the upper left corner on my gigantic super widescreen desktop monitor.. :/
That said, mutter is super smooth (YMMV, it's been for me at least), much more so than any other composite window manager with "animations" and such (if that's your cup of tea), and it wouldn't surprise me if window placement is scriptable through an extension or such in the near future. That seems to be gnome-shells biggest strength. Smoothness and scriptability.

[TeamRocket1233c]

So when you say "improve the DE's usability", you really mean "make it like the Gnome2 I got used to"

Pretty much.

[alexfish]

Using a system is about how you can control it as a user , put bindings and protocol to which defies logic is no way forward.

Gnome. print 1+1=

if x=y then d = Pix_might_do_if pix_will_not_do_if pix_can_not_do_then_do_not_pix
else
If at_the_end_of_all_that_then if gnome 1+1 = 3
see help: on how to get a result,

30 pages into help, refer to help , page 194560

paragraph 20456, line 563024......

what a way to use a system , bog it down in crap protocol , no normal logical person will entertain having to write 20 meanings which can have 20 different outcomes, if in simple terms all you want to do is "print 1+1 =2"

[Chdslv]

The simplest thing is to open Nautilus, navigate to /usr/share/applications and keep that window open or minimized. All your applications are there, just a click away. You can't delete any icon from that, if you are not root, so you have the simplest scrollable menu. You can have it any way you like, full screen, half screen...

The same with PCmanFM, Thunar, Nemo, or any other file-manager.