[SauciestGNU]

I just can't agree with this. I used Gnome 3 with excitement when it came out. I found that it was unpolished back then, and probably not ready for general use. I switched to XFCE for a while, then openbox, fluxbox, and a number of tiling window managers, then to MATE and finally back to Gnome.

I've been using Gnome now for about three years. I find the hot corner UI to be intuitive (and I find myself trying to use that and the meta-key expose function on other OSes). The favorites dock and the search are things that I use frequently, and the title bar menus make sense to me.

I was a Gnome 2 user for years as well, and yes it was polished and predictable. But it wasn't attractive. I think Gnome 3 was the next logical step for the project as far as contemporary UI patterns go, and it feels very "ergonomic" to me.