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!
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!
@funnylookinhat that's always an interesting thing to do. I've been using Boxes for that for the last couple of years.