gnome selelction and installation, gnome shell

[rdnublx]

I am new to Ubuntu, would appreciate a clarification of gnome choices and appropriate installation actions.

I am choosing between 10.10 and 11.04 installation. This is based on my perception of the prevailing opinion that Unity desktop is not as good and usable as gnome. My understanding is that 11.04 comes with Unity. If there was a way to install or select gnome 3 on 11.04, I would prefer it over 10.10. So, is there a way to do that, and what are the steps?

Second question, how does gnome shell reference fits into the gnome desktop nomenclature? I have read good reviews of the gnome shell, not sure what is the default on 10.10 or 11.04. Are there any additional steps to install or engage gnome shell on either of the releases if it's not a default.

Thank you.

[BigSilly]

I personally would go for 11.10. This would give you the option of both Unity and Gnome Shell, which you could easily install once you are set up. It would give you a proper chance to evaluate them both for yourself, and decide on one or the other without having to re-install another distro. :)

[rdnublx]

Thank you. Unfortunately, I can't as Fusion 4 does not support 11.10 yet. So, my best choice may be to stay on 10.10 with gnome 2 until 11.10 is on the list of supported releases.

Also, what is gnome shell vs. gnome desktop though? Based on my reading here, I assumed it's a CLI shell which could be separately installed on various desktops. And supposedly gnome shell provides much better functionality. Am I totally off the target here?