Gnome replaces Unity

[Paul Smith]

On Sat, 2017-10-14 at 20:39 +0200, Xen wrote:
> > The Ubuntu GNOME folks have been doing a great job.
> 
> Sure but how much does that differ from regular Gnome 3?

I don't know for sure.  But I believe they don't spend much time
customizing at all.  My understanding is that Ubuntu GNOME is pretty
much vanilla GNOME 3.

> > there are real users out there, who are not involved with
> > GNOME 3 development, who think it's the best option.
> 
> So how many?

How many think Cinnamon is the best?  How many think Mate is the best? 
Who knows?  Why does it matter?

Here's the thing... I don't really care about desktop environments.  I
just want them to stay out of my way and facilitate my workflow.

I don't care about themes: I need something simple and unobtrusive that
uses the least amount of screen real-estate possible.  GNOME 3 starts my
apps and manages my windows with minimal hassle, it lets me configure my
mouse and keyboard to my preferences, it manages multiple screens,
audio/mic settings, network configurations including VPN, etc. and it
uses just a small strip across the top of one of my screens.

With my CSS tweak to minimize title bar height, it's great.

> And you know what: even though Microsoft brings its own slew of problems 
> (mostly the forced updates nowadays) I am really grateful that I don't 
> have:
> 
> - problems with multiple displays

All my GNOME 3 systems have multiple displays and I have no problems.

> - difficulty with changing audio device

Oh right, that's the third GNOME extension I add: Gnome Shell Audio
Output Switcher which adds an audio output selector into the system menu
so I don't have to open the control panel to do it.  Works great.

> - a calendar that is hardly readable

The calendar provided by the GNOME 3 panel seems quite readable to me,
and it displays all my Google calendar appointments, both from my
personal and work accounts, just fine.

The other items you mentioned I didn't understand.