I avoided Gnome for exactly that reason for years but the shell extensions for gnome have improved a lot and it's pretty flexible now. If you don't mind depending on the addin authors maintaining your favorites.Dash to panel or dock is virtually a whole different UI.

[–] lastweakness@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I honestly find it odd that anyone brings up "no choices" and "lack of customisation" as a point against GNOME at all... Nothing in any desktop environment comes close to the versatility of GNOME extensions.

[–] shrugs@piefed.social 3 points 5 hours ago

finally someone says it.

the extensions might not be core utilities of gnome and break on an update, but they allow for customization that even kde doesn't provide yet everyone is saying gnome has a "lack of customization"