This is an odd problem and I will attempt to detail it as well as possible. When running gnome with the Enlightenment WM I pull up the Gnome "Start Menu", then select Panel, then select Global Properties. After the Global Panel configuration window comes up I close it by clicking the X button in the upper-right hand corner. After doing this I am prompted with a pop-up window saying "I've detected a panel already running. Start another panel as well?" If I click No Enlightenment is shut down leaving Gnome in an unusable state for the average user. If I click Yes I am returned to Enlightenment but after stopping and restarting X I am again stuck in Gnome with no Window Manager. To get things back in a working state after this I just removed the .gnome directory in my home directory and restarted X. This reset any WM variables from my last session and effectively fixed the problem.
This bug is gone as of 5.8.2, I consider this report resolved.
Commit pushed to master at https://github.com/openshift/origin-web-console https://github.com/openshift/origin-web-console/commit/115c0752655a3ba8bd30e391f01452bf64b0dccd Merge pull request #1421 from sg00dwin/overview-empty-state-issue1346 Merged by openshift-bot