This doesn't seem like it is going to change. Ever. The course Apple was on software-wise when Jobs passed away Apple seems terrified of moving away from, even when it was clear at the time that desktop was not getting full attention over iOS.

No one in software at Apple seems to have the vision required to make positive changes, rather than cribbing from iOS as the Lions have. Jonny Ive can keep hardware running well, but software is languishing.

It used to be such an easy choice as to what OS I wanted. Mac OS X was prettier, more stable, more fluid and had better apps. I think Windows 8 is a much prettier OS, although the apps aren't there yet. Ubuntu is also plenty usable, has the UNIX underpinnings, and is less ugly in a number of spots than OS X (god I hate linen, and I have no love for skuemorphism). I've strongly considered running Windows 8 as my host system and virtualizing Mountain Lion, although I'm leaning towards sticking to Mac as host for now.

EDIT: FWIW, I would note that Apple's core programming: system libraries and such, remains top notch. It's the front-end that seems fairly clueless.