Not to detract from the coolness of this, but I wish new OSes dabbled in new GUIs as well.
Experimental operating systems seem to be dime a dozen by now, but we almost never see experimental GUIs or entirely new "desktop environments".
Just as how almost every "new" programming language is still stuck with semicolons and other C-isms that were ancient back when the Egyptians were laying down the pyramids, we're still stuck with either imitating the macOS GUI or the Windows GUI, or some weird Frankenstein's bastard of the two.
iOS, Android, consoles, and most recently the Vision Pro have proven that eschewing longstanding conventions can be successful — for example the vast majority of people on this planet don't need or care about scrollbars (or even menubars) anymore.
So why aren't the creators of experimental OSes being more experimental with the frontend? Come on guys, none but the nerds among us will be impressed with how it's made behind the scenes. The first impression that most people will get is that's just Yet Another WinMac-Looklike.
As an avid user of i3wm, the "YAWML" that you described isn't my favorite. The good news is we're working on architectural changes that will make it easier to develop alternative desktop environments that use the same APIs. I have a daily video chat with the author and the topic of custom guis is something that comes up pretty often.
Experimental operating systems seem to be dime a dozen by now, but we almost never see experimental GUIs or entirely new "desktop environments".
Just as how almost every "new" programming language is still stuck with semicolons and other C-isms that were ancient back when the Egyptians were laying down the pyramids, we're still stuck with either imitating the macOS GUI or the Windows GUI, or some weird Frankenstein's bastard of the two.
iOS, Android, consoles, and most recently the Vision Pro have proven that eschewing longstanding conventions can be successful — for example the vast majority of people on this planet don't need or care about scrollbars (or even menubars) anymore.
So why aren't the creators of experimental OSes being more experimental with the frontend? Come on guys, none but the nerds among us will be impressed with how it's made behind the scenes. The first impression that most people will get is that's just Yet Another WinMac-Looklike.