Gnome constantly seems to tell me that the way I want the DE to work is "wrong" and eventually renegs on my complaints (e.g. vertical workspaces, forcing a user to slide up the lock screen, etc.). So I was pretty happy to see the change for workspaces to be horizontal instead of vertical.
That said - why couldn't they just go the full way and support a grid? Ironically it's the one way in which Mac offers a better option for desktop management.
I end up flirting with another DE every few years because of the friction I feel when using Gnome - but every time I come back for basic/modern usability issues. The reality is that, if you have a dynamic workspace (e.g. a laptop that you switch monitors with or change peripherals), then the path of least resistance is Gnome.
I just wish they would view that as a position of responsibility rather than power - you're on the goal line for winning users over in so many ways - heed the feedback!
Elementary is a great candidate for being "the best desktop Linux distro" - and I'm really rooting for them (and honestly for every Linux team!). I had some funky hardware issues on my last install that kept me from diving in - I'll give the upcoming release a shot though and see how far I get!
@funnylookinhat that's always an interesting thing to do. I've been using Boxes for that for the last couple of years.
The only thing really keeping me from spending these past two weeks on holiday from shopping distributions has been my internet connection. We're on a DSL line that makes provisioning a fresh install (or even getting an ISO) too painful and slow.
Once we get our internet build-out completed I'll be looking for a weekend to try all of the latest!