I also was hit by this problem. Two remarks: - I am afraid this is WONTFIX (or at least RedHat thinks so: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1180709), because it was an intentional change... but you can maybe try to open a bug upstream raising the issue (though I doubt that they will listen).
- I was able to solve the problem for me by just changing the buttons layout: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout \ ":close" Now evince is able to go half-screen on my 1366x768 monitor (but not on my 1280x1024 one). You can certainly shrink a bit more by also removing the "close" button and/or by switching theme (see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=189333 ) but it will be very hard to get down half of a 1024 screen. (BTW: Peter, as far as I know Okular or Zathura could work for you.) Pietro
