Your suggestions for Exposé are good, and I think even practicable. It needs to be said, though, that any widespread revolutions in GUIs will be the result of evolution, not revolution. As a society we’re just as attached and just as dependent on the static window model as on gasoline-powered engines. Sure, some geeks like multiple desktops in Linux, and it may be objectively better, but you can say the same thing about hydrogen cars. Also, consider that while we may be tired of static windows, most of the world is still getting the hang of them. There’s still plenty of usability issues to be worked through before the model is mature and ready to be supplanted.

Perhaps a good analogy is the bike; a fancy Cannondale today looks very little like the first bikes, but I can still look at either and know how to start working with it immediately, because I learned how to ride ‘a’ bike, and therefore by extension any bike. That kind of universal generalized expertise is very valuable and discarded at our peril.