David, You have a choice when logging in on Ubuntu 11.04. You may opt for Unity, Gnome (without effects) or Gnome with Compiz. It's not that Natty Narwhal doesn't come with Gnome bundled. I suggest you give it a shot, even if on VM.
I tried out the Alpha and Beta versions of Natty, I dont think am ready to embrace it, Am waiting for Mint 11 :)
-- ˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙˙ Regards,
David Njuki @njukey [Google,Twitter,Yahoo]