Yes it could be summarized as a window manager if it takes over all aspects of managing the computer through a GUI.

I develop with Mac OS and deploy my cloud services on Debian. I don't know much about Linux beyond apt-get upgrade, nginx, Ansible and Java apps. I know when I install Mac OS X that the progress bar is gray with no text on the screen, which means I don't need to dive into the technical details at any point from installation to writing a presentation, displaying it on an external screen through HDMI, tuning a mouse or plugging a printer. Has RHEL improved that much?

On step further is of course being able to install a good clone of Keynote (slideware), iMovie and an image editor for $40-80 each, but that's after the ecosystem starts gathering around the OS.

There is this great UI stack that is open source, has the latest and greatest animations. Its API is even used by thousands of developers already. It's called Android. Maybe it's time to ditch X11 and move to a more modern stack. Problem solved.

Ps: during the transition, you could support both. And of course the touch aspect needs to be cleaned up but it would still be a much better codebase to start from.

Have you seen Elementary OS? It will suit you if you are a mac person who doesn't really like the no-frills of other linux distros.

Yes I have. The installation process shows a progress bar in an old-school bevel/embossed window, underlined with the filename it's writing. On my computer it showed alerts in the middle. Once started, it's just a normal Linux with sharp edges. Installation of at least one of my programs (probably IntelliJ) crashed, I think I succeeded to fix that using advice from Stack Overflow and the command-line, if I remember. Definitely working, but definitely not the experience we'd like.

It's already a great OS, to be honest, but what about adding 20-100 employees and making it a blockbuster?

When was the last time you checked it out? That's what the team behind it has been doing. From what I understand the last two where all just polish.

I'd love it if you gave it a go and told us how you felt the pain points where.

I'm not involved with the project I just want more users on Linux-based OS.