Desktop Linux distribution with the latest GNOME 3?

Question

I'm looking for a Linux distribution to use with GNOME 3. Currently I'm using Fedora 20, but there are many bugs in Gnome (for example Bug 1058314, earlier was Bug 995785). Both are blockers for me.

I am currently using Fedora because it is the one release that is very tight with GNOME development.

Is there any other good distribution designed with Gnome 3 in mind?

My expectations:

• Good GNOME 3 experience, as close as possible from upstream.

• Always quickly includes the latest Gnome 3 release (this is the must!)

• Fully integrated with the system

• Stable (in the sense of few bugs)

• Easy installation

• This distribution should use GNOME 3 as default desktop environment

Most Linux distributions have customized Gnome (like Ubuntu with Unity, or Mint with Cinnamon etc). I'm looking for distribution with latest GNOME 3.

There are similar topics (outdated or incomplete):

• The Quest for the Best GNOME 3 distribution
• What is best Gnome 3 linux distro?
• The best GNOME 3 distro
• Fedora 19: Chasing the perfect GNOME distro!

Answer 1

I use Arch Linux (Also check out ArchBang, which is easier to install), which is purported as a bleeding-edge distro and generally has extremely recent versions of software in its repos. It also has Gnome 3, and a wiki page for help configuring and installing.

You can install Gnome3 with pacman -S gnome. But it's recommended to read the installation section of the wiki first. You may also want a Display Manager like LightDM to handle your login screen.

The current version of Gnome in the official repositories for Arch is 3.10.3, released on January 16 2014.

It has overall excellent support for Gnome3, and always has the latest (or very recent) version.

Answer 2

Ubuntu GNOME might be another option for you. It is an official flavor of Ubuntu with GNOME as the default desktop environment instead of Unity. Since it is a flavor of Ubuntu, you get the easy installation process the Ubuntu has.

At the time of writing, Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 includes GNOME 3.16 from a fresh installation. This can be upgraded to future releases through the package manager. Alternatively, you can also get the "beta" releases by adding the GNOME3 Staging PPA (which at the time of writing, is hosting GNOME 3.18).

Ubuntu GNOME might be slightly behind on releases if you are using the default repository. If you add the staging repository, you will always have the most up to date version of GNOME.