Crunchbang - the lightweight contender with a big heart.

Crunchbang started off with an Ubuntu base, which is probably not a bad place to start. It has since matured through to a very usable Debian base OS. I have used it off and on for a number of years. I like it because of it minimalist look and feel, it just works, has some nice scripts and is lightweight on resources.
Crunchbang is not really designed for beginners or people new to Linux as it is quite different from Ubuntu (a favourite of beginners) or even MS Windows or Apples OSX in its look and usage. Installing is fairly straight forward using the debian install "wizard". It doesn't have an install option from the live mode which I hope is remedied soon. Once installed and rebooted the dark desktop is presented. This is a combination of openbox, tint2, and a few other bits like conky for displaying system usage and the keyboard shortcuts on the screen. The version I am using is based on the testing branch of debian which is really quite stable. It has the basic apps needed to get going and it has an install script for most of the other stuff you might need and configured. I have found Crunchbang to be ideal for my laptop which has a 14" screen where other desktop environment or window mangers are a little bit to screen hungry, especially Gnome and KDE. Having a dark and uncluttered desktop make it easier to work with and easier on the eyes.
I will be using this one more. Personal rating 9.5.