I've looked at Elementary before and I applaud them for what they're doing. I like it a hell of a lot more than I like Unity, that's ferdamnsure. That said, it's not there and I tend to think it never will be for reasons that aren't their fault. Yeah, Elementary has written some appealing default applications, and the lessons they're putting down are ones I'm good with picking up. I like the way they're looking at applications like their calendaring app; they show some of what I have referred to in other comments as "give-a-shit". I appreciate that. The problem is that they aren't sufficiently weighty to change the rest of the stuff out there. They don't have the clout to tell the developers of applications like GIMP or Inkscape to conform to a sane HIG. So you're bouncing in and out of the land of decent applications all day. That sucks. It's not really their fault, to be sure, but it still sucks. Apple's control of their environment has done a lot to encourage/browbeat/force developers to act consistently with the platform, and that's a big reason that the ecosystem around OS X is so fantastic to work in.

Also, and this is just sort of a general thing, I don't think I can put up with a GTK+ environment again. It's fugly and gross and the spacing is always so wrong and...ew. Can't do it. Wouldn't be prudent. ;)

If they continue on their current track, I believe the clout will come with time.

I'm sticking with OSX for now, but I believe I will give ElementaryOS a try in a VM at least.

I hope you're right. =) I like what they're doing. I think they have good sense. It would be great if others follow their lead.

Unity may be a sub-par desktop environment at the moment, but at least they tried to do something new and innovative. Elementary just looks like an even more Apple like version of an Apple product.