It's far better than Windows 95.
My most recent Linux installation was Red Hat's Fedora Core 2, about a year ago. Thankfully, I rarely need to access the GUI on it, but I do occasionally. I'll be upgrading it to FC4 soon, but don't expect any major improvements in the GUI. It's the same old Windows 95-style that Linux has been stuck with for a while now.
Occasionally I'll try out the latest attempts at Linux GUIs like Nautilus (which flopped) or the Croquet Project (which is interesting, but a long way from commercial usability).