All I really want is a straight forward classic desktop environment. I wouldn't call myself extremely techie, but I can figure out how to tweek the usability part myself, given the right tools. I felt gnome 2 gave me that, while gnome 3 just left me annoyed and confused. If I want a DE that just pisses me off every time I log on, I can just go get a copy of Windows Vista.
For now I spend most of my time on Windows 7, because it's not completely hopeless. Have been looking at Cinnamon lately though. I've always loved what the Linux Mint team has brought to the table, so it doesn't come as a surprise to me that it looks good and is easy to use. Only problem there is that my ATI card isn't completely happy with it, so I get a 2-3 sec freeze once in a while. As I'm not super techie (as mentioned above), I currently don't know how to solve that. If anyone knows a fix (like turning something on or off) please leave a comment.