The GNOME developers removed it.

I never see anybody complaining about removal of features from epiphany (the gnome web browser). That's probably because everybody knows it's intended to be a simple, featureless browser for those who don't need something more powerful. If you need features, you install Chrome or Firefox, and all the other core apps are no different. If gnome-terminal isn't enough for you, install terminator. If nautilus isn't enough, install one of the others mentioned here. If the shell doesn't do something you need it to do, find or write an extension. I actually think the gnome way of doing things is perfect.

I can see where you're coming from and I agree to a certain point. However, I think the file manager is such an important tool; oversimplifying it and making it hard to use is not a good idea. I loved Gnome 2.6; it is probably my favorite desktop environment. It felt like a great balance of simplicity and features that make my life easier. So I find that taking that away bit by bit isn't working for me. I don't really want to have two of every app because Gnome's default is too awkward or lacks some pretty basic features.

I've said this before here, but Apple have really concentrated on the laptop experience at the expense of the desktop experience. Which is understandable if you look at their sales figures. I was using a Mac Mini when I first upgraded to Mountain Lion, and really wasn't a big fan. Then I got a Macbook Air, and all of a sudden all of the modifications made sense. Things like the fact that they have optimised the OS for SSDs - which you find in laptops, not desktops. But that optimisation makes hard-drive based Macs much much slower than they were before. Or the fullscreen interface which works really well when you can do a three finger swipe to swap between screens, but not so well if you have a mouse.

"Personally i never understood the hatred towards change."

i assume if something changes for the worst you enjoy it? your phone can no longer auto dial. do you celebrate? your word processor no longer has spell check. do you pat the developers on the back?

its a bit of fud and tone deaf to say people have hatred for change because gnome3 sucks. this is the same fud that the gnome PR machine keeps trying to spin. no one is that stupid. it's a slap in the face of gnome2 users. it comes off as snobbish and condescending. like a crappy pop band that never makes it and blames the audience because there just not ready for the profound brilliance of there music. honestly the gnome project and its hobby lobby need to get over themselves and learn how to take criticism and learn from there mistakes if they ever want to put the project back on track.

people use gnome2 because it's a quality desktop with the efficiency needed for professional workstation users. that was the goal of the gnome project. they radically changed direction to chase the tablet market and fell flat on there face. if gnome on tables was a success i doubt that we would hear one word from them about the desktop anymore. the desktop was thrown out with the bath water. now that they have failed, the only users they have left are an angry group of desktop users who just want some improvements to gonme2. will the gnome project ever care enough to shift back to the desktop in a serious way and make a quality desktop for these users? i think the answer is no. as long as RedHat keeps paying the bills they will keep dancing. gnome3 has zero chance of taking the place of gnome2 and most organizations have shifted to a new desktop or are in the process of doing so. the gnome project is essentially dead, with no vision for the desktop market they still have and no penetration into the tablet market.

It was never about "hatred towards change". I don't think that people have a problem with change itself, as long as it leaves them better off, or where they already were, at worst. People do dislike change that leaves them worse off, however.

Basically every change imposed by the GNOME team has left many, many users much worse off than they were before. Furthermore, it's very doubtful that these changes have actually made any other users better off.

Taking away useful functionality doesn't make a system "simpler" to use. It just makes it impractical at best, but more often than not it makes it outright useless. That's what GNOME has become to a lot of us, and that's why we no longer bother with it.

We want to use software that makes us more efficient, rather than software that's "simple", yet forces us to put in much more effort to do basic and essential tasks.