@kaia I agree with that. Gnome 2 and newer look ugly.
I don't know what the obsession is with eye candy besides that corporations know that people like it and that it enables non-technical people to use it while also ensuring more people know less about how their software and hardware work.
Which is why corporations and rightly so, realize that the more flashy the eye candy, the more they can get away with devious stuff in the background.
Its rather infuriating...
:(