RHEL7 uses Gnome3, period. There is a "session" called Gnome3 classic, which is Gnome3 + extensions, all of which can be downloaded and installed from extensions.gnome.org. If someone wants to have a desktop that it a continuation of the RHEL6 desktop, i.e. Gnome2, the only true option is MATE. The thing is that ATM MATE is using Gtk2, which is obsolete at this point and will only receive minor updates for the lifetime of RHEL6. MATE is looking to rebase to Gtk3, but they have postponed it to MATE 1.10 [1] So IMO, the only way forward is MATE with Gtk3. [1] http://mate-desktop.org/blog/2014-02-13-mate-desktop-roadmap- reshuffle/