My current sane desktop settings/setup for Gnome 3 shell. Starting with Ubuntu 12.04LTS desktop as a base.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3$ sudo apt-get update$ sudo apt-get install gnome-shell$ sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool
- Disable Window Animations - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/119/disable-window-animations/
- Gnome Shell Extension Weather by Neroth - http://www.webupd8.org/2011/10/install-gnome-shell-weather-extension.html
- Media player indicator - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/55/media-player-indicator/
- Netspeed - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/104/netspeed/
- Places status indicator - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/8/places-status-indicator/
- Quit button - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/156/quit-button/
- Remove accessibility - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/112/remove-accesibility/
- Remove Rounded Corners - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/448/remove-rounded-corners/
- TaskBar - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/584/taskbar/
- VirtualBox Vm Search Provider - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/308/virtualbox-vm-search-provider/
- Weather - https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/613/weather/
- http://www.webupd8.org/2012/08/greybird-default-xubuntu-theme-gets.html
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:shimmerproject/ppa$ sudo apt-get update$ sudo apt-get install shimmer-themes-greybird
$ gnome-tweak-tool- Fonts
- Text scaling: 1.0
- Default font: Ubuntu/8
- Document font: Sans/10
- Monospace font: Ubuntu Mono/10
- Window title font: Ubuntu Bold/8
- Hinting: Slight
- Antialiasing: Rgba
- Theme
- Cursor: Adwaita
- Icon theme: Ubuntu-mono-dark
- GTK+ theme: Greybird-git
- Window theme: Greybird-git
- http://askubuntu.com/questions/99874/how-do-i-turn-off-gnome-shell-activities-animations
$ sudo nano /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/overview.js- Edit the following line
> const ANIMATION_TIME = 0.001;
$ sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar-0.2-0 liboverlay-scrollbar3-0.2-0- Reboot