Hmm, still in alpha and I don't like to be so negative, but this gets me worried for Mint
- the blossoming new extensions landscape is at once cut off
- the overview just has the window overview - combined with the above the feeling is that of a truncated shell, not an enhanced or simplified one. I can set up a single panel with mint menu, window tabs and workspace switcher in 2 minutes in standard Gnome Shell, and then you have
everything (all) Cinnamon has to offer now
plus the Gnome Shell bells and whistles of which the possibility to change your desktop with community created extensions is a rather big bell
- super/windowskey opens the menu, and typing in application names filters down to the application you need, but then pressing enter does nothing, doesn't launch the filtered app. You also can't use it for files so it's basically a stunted version of Unity's dash/Gnome Shell's overview search - those who have gotten used to the faster way of launching folders, files and programs than mousing through menus will have to install Synapse or something similar. MGSE felt like Mint admirably trying to bridge a gap between the past and future desktop paradigms, between Gnome 2 and Gnome 3, this comes off just turning to the past.
- the infinity logo was just the Zukitwo theme author's idea of a cool activities button icon - his newest one has a heart - it looks like what it is, a marooned leftover, a pointless fragment, just lingering there. Idea: no logo. Especially as it stays on top of windows, but I guess that can be fixed easily
- my battery icon now rather pointlessly has percentage next to it - not the volume icon though - I guess that's easy to fix too
In order to not just please the Windows 95 desktop diehards at the expense of everyone else and especially all future possible new-comers used to newer desktop paradigms, this needs to open a door to community extensions and, well,
add something instead of just presenting "Gnome Shell Minus" with one panel at the bottom. Unless big changes happen, mintifying MATE and Gnome Shell just seems a much better idea than this.