Having a degree doesn't make you a great coder and neither does being self taught. Talent and understanding big picture concepts are what makes a great coder. If you don't have either of these by age 30, then having a degree or not doesn't matter as you're useless to all but the most bloated of organizations.

If you are a hot shot coder fresh out of high school and understand how to follow a schedule, estimate hours, generate unit tests, use an automated build process, use revision control, capture requirements, and can generate readable documentation, then you are FAR FAR beyond where most self-taught people are.

If you have a brand spanking new CS, SE, CE, IT degree and can do all of those things above but understand why compiler errors are typically on the line following the error, why C++ link lines need the libs in a specific order, why Java and .Net apps are trivial to disassemble, and have actually wrote something on your own that wasn't part of school to solve a problem you have, then you are FAR FAR beyond where most young people with a degree are.

If either are the case, contact me cause I would probably hire you.

Note: After age 30 or so, neither of these matter as you should have enough experience in the real world to do all of it.

The issue isn't Gnome 3 vs. Gnome 2 at all. The issue is DE's are boring. Remember when Compiz was first being developed? There were crazy plugins to make the windows dissolve into flames and wobble and all that. Gimmicks. Fun for a second but they're gimmicks. What ended up happening was DE's merging the compositing effects into the DE and sticking to keeping out of the way of the user. BOOORRING. All the DE needs to do is provide a way to launch apps and manage settings and that's not fun to work on if there's no new ground to cover. Windows 8, Mac OS, IOS, Unity are all going the same direction: big button toolbar for touch and search. Gnome 3 did the same thing and you can't fault the devs for that.

As for the Gnome 3 sucks, use Cinnamon or MATE crowd, let me ask this: what makes more sense to you? Use that.

As you post in a threaded message board...

Or you could stop blaming Linux users for the actions of modders and botters. PlayOnLinux says at least 30,000 people are using it to play Diablo III. I'm one of them and I have not been banned. MANY Linux users have not been banned because the only people who seem to be posting in these threads are the handful of people who claim to have been banned and Windows users who keep saying "quit whining, you're unsupported". My suspicions are that they are using bots and using Wine as their excuse.

The recent Humble Bundle had Linux support for all of the games and I was happy to buy it. I do support the companies who support Linux, but I have no intention of buying Windows simply to play a game when the company (with one glaring exception with WoW way back when) has had stellar support for Wine even if they don't handle officially because of cost. I've been Linux only for over a decade and will be happy to stay that way.

Back your assertion up. Does it manage windows? Yes. Does it offer status information? Yes. Can I control settings like wifi, bluetooth, etc. quickly? Yes. Does it have DE utilities to manage preferences, wallpaper, etc? Yes.

Sounds like a perfectly good desktop environment. Any comments beyond that are simply opinion.

Microsoft switched to the ribbon much to the dismay of experienced users, but for new users, it's significantly better. Their own research backed that up. Eventually, you get accustomed to it.

Gnome is trying to stay current, by offering capabilities that are found in modern environments without having to add in utilities like Gnome-Do or Cairodock. If you want the *old* interface, use XFCE or LXDE or whatever other oldschool windowing environment you'd like to use. That's what it means to have choice in the FLOSS community.

I bought the N1 unsubsidized. At the time, it was the $529 or $199 subsidized with a 2 year contract. Of course, over those two years it was an extra $20 a month on T-Mobile so $480 extra over the two years which is more than the savings from the phone. As for my monthly charges, I get 500 anytime, unlimited night and weekend, unlimited text, unlimited web for $67.78 after taxes. Broken out, it's 29.99 for minutes, 10 for text, and 20 for web according to my statement. Plus I can tether. Compare that to my wife on an iPhone 3G who's paying $89 or so after taxes with similar minutes, limited texting, and soon to be limited data. For me, that's a huge discount.