I like it (though I'm not sure yet I'd switch). But it made me think about the desktop design. My first thought is that I'd rather NOT have the title bar along the side, unless it were optional (though personally I'd still never use it). As far as I'm concerned, I can do without the title bar altogether. I know if I'm in Xterm or the browser or File Manager without a title bar to tell me. And I hate to give up the real estate.

So that makes me think that the best thing about what you have (for me, who is happy with Personal Menu so cares little about the iPhone-type icon arrangement) is the LACK of a Title bar along the top, and the wise use of that space to put the standard left-side stuff there (MicroB icon, Personal Menu icon, App Menu, open apps).

Even better, what I would like to see in a GUI, and it would suit what you are doing, is, say, a Full-screen-view desktop that has just a little icon superimposed in a corner (I'm talking about when you have an application open and on top), the clicking of which would reveal your (currently shown) two bars. That is, you could go back and forth between Full-screen and non-Full-screen (what's it called, Window View maybe?) without having to press the little hardware button (which, at least on the N800, is a minor nuisance).

Likewise I wouldn't want to lose space to a Close button; rather I'd let that function be carried by the Applications Menu, where there are Close buttons under the standard GUI, but with the Applications Menu being in your (hidden-but-revealable, in my scenario) bar on the top left.

Also, within your scheme of things, I would want you to have an alternative desktop (or a "category) that showed the desktop applets, like Internet Radio, OMWeather, FM Radio (on the N800), etc.