I'm using 12.04 with 'Gnome Classic (no effects)' with some tweaks that
I found here.
< ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1966370>
You have to 'sudo apt-get install gnome-panel' so you can get the
'Classic Gnome (no effect)'.
The only thing that is annoying is that Gnome decided to change how you
work with the panels, you have to hold down the 'alt' key to get the
context menu so you can change things. Of course it is just an annoyance
cause once I have the panels the way I like them I don't need it again.
Hope this helps.