Evaluating Gnome Shell for the second time. There are few things driving me crazy. All can be easily fixed.
1) Multiple workspaces works only on primary monitor. If you have two (or more) screens setup forget changing workspaces on secondary ones. It just does not work(TM). Easy fix: run gconf-editor, navigate to /desktop/gnome/shell/windows and uncheck workspaces_only_on_primary. Restart with alt-f2 and "r" + enter.
2) Window "slide" animation when changing workspaces is killing me. Let's disable it by using my plugin. Restart with alt-f2 and "r" + enter.
3) Broken alt-tab. The order of alt-tab swapping was changed due to window grouping. I know this is feature, but its ultra-confusing and I hate it. There's plugin called gnome-shell-extensions-alternate-tab that reverts to the classic Alt+Tab behavior. Window based instead of app based.
After bunch of updates in Fedora 15 Gnome Shell seems stable for me now. I will give it a try.
Make Gnome Shell more usable
July 1, 2011