First off am glad things are going very well for you, since you deserve it. Second, I made a poor generalization and should be more stated as Ubuntu and Gnome going downhill. My beef stems with 14.10 not showing plymouth splash on boot, unless you fiddle with the boot configuration. I have yet to see this since using Ubuntu's. Then we have Gnome, looked great with 3.10, then nope have to trash gtk and put some nightmares in it so can devastate the way theme creators make their themes. I spent a good year, finally making my desktop look the way I have always dreamed it to look. Then these changes come down and I can't stand the way my desktop looks. I look on Gnome looks and I see themes that are absolutely grotesque and child-like. I have not seen such pathetic looks ever on there. I can now understand due to these changes, theme creators are at a loss and just do not want to try.
I am nowhere near a pro on anything, theme creation included. Still, I did my best to create a different look, which took quite a bit of time and not just a few meaningless changes to a theme. I know my work was nowhere near as widely acceptable as many others, but still feel those that did enjoy will now be at a loss. I will not create themes for Gnome3.14 and above unless more than 50% of what is written in the theme is actually implemented. I see others just blow that off, but I will not. Of course not all my aggravation stems from the looks being devastated. I then find gdb did nothing. Gedit, soon as I typed 3 words nothing just stopped typing. I then had Nemo file manager shutting down at will. Nautilus, icons would just vanish off the desktop whenever. Konqueror could not open a new window. Pipelight-multi worked on two browsers only which were Firefox and ironically Konqueror.
Not sure if you saw what I wrote for debian, but also see that as very sad. I mean Ubuntu has had wireless internet drivers working for over 4 years I know of. This is one of the things that drew me into Linux. Since I have lived here in Tennessee, I have yet to have a wired connection, since cable is as science fiction as Star Trek out here. What made my debian venture worse was the fact I also used second option(failsafe) which put system into a Gnome3.4 environment. I then installed the missing drivers, then proceeded to install that OS. I was shocked it did not work and no matter what I filled in, refused to connect even though in desktop mode was connected. Absolutely, shocking. So in those regards, I thing debian is behind. Have to think about the majority of the population and most are using wireless.
So, of the disasters listed above I can only believe I have totally toasted the build I had of 14.10. At the moment I have a new build with just the desktops, but left Gnome at 3.12. I can see those nasty gtk changes right now, but still need to investigate more. I was really hoping to confer with others on here that have delved into 14.10. As have stated a zillion times am on Verizon and not rich. Data downloads are devastating when building an OS. For a cable user is nothing. Been there while I live in Illinois. Now that am in the sticks, I get charged a fortune if I go over 10 gigs. One OS can do this, since they seem to count the amount of data after the installation.
When I built this one am using 13.10, ran like a dream and still does. There's some minor idiosyncrasy due to having upped Gnome from standard 3.8 to 3.10 but nothing that keeps this from working decent. So, I then figured I am going to do the same with 14.10. I worked my you know what off and come up with something worse than the first OS I put together right after you started "Build with Me". So you better believe, I want to know why? So, I scour the internet and find some issues as my own with no solution. I tried to contact a few to find more information, but no response. I also found a few programs I enjoy, developers are not pushing those to 14.10. So I then start assuming the worst.
Knowing I am nowhere near even a quarter the genius you are, I figure others may point me in the right direction to get all this resolved. I enjoy moving forward with improvements, but thus far I have seen nothing but a downhill stride with Ubuntu 14.10. I am begging and hoping for others to prove me wrong. I know you care and have great pride and enthusiasm in all you do, but I see many others as not showing great concern and very little enthusiasm. I guess I am still very frustrated I lack the intelligence to figure so many things out. I am not going to stop trying though as I refuse to give up. I just wish I can get a push into the right direction to get this all as should be. I am very proud of this 13.10 and I want to be equally proud if not more of a 14.10. Is a drag to be totally embarrassed spending so many hours only to get a bunch of dribble, useless trash. Am sure you can side with that, right?