The Ubuntu Unity desktop environment is very annoying compared to the MATE alternative. I keep getting notifications that an app has stopped working, like Redshift, and then it loads it up again and it is running twice. Why does this even happen? With the MATE desktop environment, it is very stable and reliable. The system tray apps load and there is no problem at all. That is the way Linux should be in 2020. Everything should be working perfectly. But Unity is the default desktop on Ubuntu, but that does not mean you should bother using it. MATE is much better and has a familiar Gnome 2 inspired layout. This can be customized to suit the user. Linux should be about customizing your desktop layout and having the freedom to arrange it how you wish. Unity kind of takes that away. MATE or Lxde would be the best option for a fast and sleek Linux desktop environment. KDE 2.2 showed how it should be done, but after the 4 release, it has gone downhill. Maybe they have far too much code and not enough quality control. Gnome 1.0 in 1999, was very usable, in this screenshot, it shows how good the file manager was as well as the icons. I wish that a modern version of this would exist.
I think that Gnome screenshot is using the Sawfish window manager, this was great back in the day. I do not know why we needed a mobile capable interface on a desktop computer, that does not make any sense. There is Gnome Flashback to provide a Gnome 2 lookalike desktop, but MATE still rules over that. And MATE can be customised to look rather like Gnome 1.0. That is very cool. But otherwise, modern Linux distributions are very usable and compete very well with Windows in terms of the software available. Even very good programming editors like Visual Studio Code are ported to Linux. If only Microsoft Office had a Linux version. That would be extremely good and would spur the Libreoffice team to make a better product.