You say this as if nobody else out there is attempting to really radically change the desktop, which isn't true. Lots and lots of distributions and platforms are — you're provably just not familiar with them (not a swipe at you at all, by the way, but it goes to show that these things don't always catch on like wildfire). Also, re:desktop metaphor dating back to OSX/95, try 1984 and the original Mac and shortly thereafter windows 1.0 :p. (or really, Doug Engelbart some years before all of that!)