Well, as they say, each one of us have our own perception but it never felt like a mac "clone" to it. It is imho an excellent mac inspired desktop that just tries to help the user of the computer and gets out of the way. Simple, elegant and really fast. This I am telling from almost a decade ago and based on quick tests over the years or screencasts.

I sometimes used to fantasise Apple ordering their UX folks to just adopt it pixel by pixel and stick to it.