OS X is no alternative--you'll have just as little choice or less there.
You should consider KDE--it's a really nice option these days, and easy to configure however you like. Fedora is a great distro if you want to run KDE with minimal setup.
I also think KDE has come a long way. You can configure it all you want and if you ignore the plasma-stuff widgets, then it doesn't get in the way and is very space-efficient (just a panel really?).
I keep hearing good things about Fedora's support for KDE but have not tried it personally.
I run KDE on openSUSE and am very happy with it, as well as the community there.
You should consider KDE--it's a really nice option these days, and easy to configure however you like. Fedora is a great distro if you want to run KDE with minimal setup.