Have you tried SmartOS as a desktop by chance? I’d love to use SmartOS for my workstation but am currently using Ubuntu with ZoL because I doubted the level of GPU support on SmartOS.
SmartOS isn't really for workstations, unless your workstation doesn't need a GUI (mine does). That said, I'm about to create a blog post and youtube video on how to run SmartOS at home for real cheap (as in cheap hardware and electricity)
I’ll be interested in that article.
I have not tried it yet but the OpenIndiana project is designated as a desktop distribution of Illumos. SmartOS is based on Illumos as well. OpenIndiana seems promising but I would not set my expectations too high for the desktop experience. However, if you virtualize Ubuntu or another *Nix distribution under OpenIndiana, it may fill some needed gaps.
Thanks, may try OpenIndiana at some point. It’s fairly low on the priority list... but running an Ubuntu/Debian container might be a good approach. Though containers and sharing GPU resources could be tricky.