MATE was forked around the time GNOME 3 was released and is still going. https://mate-desktop.org Some people consider Cinnamon to be a GNOME 2 spiritual successor while still using a lot of GNOME 3 stuff under the hood. https://projects.linuxmint.com/cinnamon/. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago

The closest I know of is Blue95. I have only run the live environment but it worked pretty well and was impressive. "Blue95 is a modern and lightweight desktop experience that is reminiscent of a bygone era of computing. Based on Fedora Atomic Xfce with the Chicago95 theme." https://github.com/winblues/blue95 And if you like Gnome 2.x, there's MATE: https://mate-desktop.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

I don't know if you are DE shopping, but I've been very happy for the past few years with the MATE Desktop Environment, which "...is the continuation of GNOME 2. It provides an intuitive and attractive desktop environment using traditional metaphors for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems." https://mate-desktop.org/ Among a great number of things I really like, I will mention that Caja, the MATE version of... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago

I agree that there is a balance between customization and "cleanness" in design and implementation. However, I think the GNOME 3 and 4 designers went too far and alienated many users: https://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-finds-gnome-3-4-to-be-a-total-user-experience-design-failure/ https://medium.com/@fulalas/gnome-42-the-nonsense-continues-7d96c3287f7... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago

> Is there a WM out there that can do the basic quality-of-life functions of today's DEs? I'd love a simple, opinionated WM that takes the features we know are useful today (workspaces, expo mode, sensible file manager layouts, system trays) and gives them a color-adjustable window theme inspired by 90's aesthetics, with minimal compositing that can run fast on hardware as minimal as a prototype RISC-V board. Or... - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago

Pattern Monster: A simple online pattern generator to create repeatable SVG patterns. Perfect for website backgrounds, apparel, branding, packaging design and more. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago

SVG Patterns (if it counts as illustration:) https://pattern.monster/. Source: over 3 years ago

For the back of the card I'll use and SVG pattern, feel free to use the one you like the most from Pattern Monster. Also center the background image with background-position, and make it cover the full card by adding background-size: cover;. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago

I'd like to put together a POC to show some possible solutions. I know there are some tools out there such as https://pattern.monster/ and https://haikei.app/ which can generate images, but ideally this would be a library or at least an API I can hook into, so admins can just create templates in our admin application without having to go to an external site and manually knock a thumbnail up. Although not required,... Source: over 3 years ago

Bonus points for adding a custom background - pattern.monster is a must-use, in my personal, humble opinion. Source: about 4 years ago