EDIT: As it turns out this is just how gnome is supposed to look and to get a permanently visible dock showing running apps and favorites I must install an extension like dash-to-dock
Thanks everyone to help me understand I was the problem here ๐
After using Ubuntu for years I thought it would be a good idea to try out plain old Debian for the first time.
So I downloaded the live-Image setup a VirtualBox and started installing it... installation ran trough without any problems. But I don't see any panel/taskbar anywhere.
I tried to google this and best guess was that gonme-panel was not installed (how?) after installation I tried to run it by the terminal but it only trows an error "(gnome-panel:3427): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 20:24:58.712: invalid cast from 'GdkWaylandDisplay' to 'GdkX11Display'". So before I start digging into this I just wanted to confirm that I am on the right track and not just mixing stuff up. So does anyone have an idea what went wrong here?
Yep, that's how plain vanilla Gnome is. You'd get pretty much the same experience if you installed Fedora or any other distro that just ships it as-is.
Ubuntu's version comes with a lot of patches and custom extensions to make it work similar to how Unity did, and give a reasonable desktop experience.
Plain Gnome as imagined by the developers:
In fact, according to the Gnome vision, you're not supposed to even theme your apps to your liking, you're supposed to stick with the default Adwaita theme. I think Ubuntu patches that too so their Yaru theme works properly.
That's why people make fun of Gnome.