[1ko]

Gnome 2 was Windows 95 UI, refined, cleaned of all bloat and with a modern look (for his time). All installed apps were automatically stored is the right sub-menu in the Application button. It was really neat to use.

[coldpie]

XFCE basically still is that. No "reinventing the desktop experience" junk, just a rock-solid desktop with all the features you expect.

[ciupicri]

All features except running on Wayland.

[superkuh]

MATE (https://mate-desktop.org/) is the modern, supported, version of Gnome2. It's a great desktop environment and all your old nautilus scripts will work with just a s/nautilus/caja/ regex replacement.