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.

Just Linux

In 1999 I first discovered GNU/Linux. I had come across a CD on the cover of a magazine. It could boot into a new and different operating system. I still have that CD! I was amazed by it. It would run my little laptop in memory (192Mb) faster than Win98 on the hard drive. Then I found a magazine in Australia with Red Hat 7.1 on the front (and I still have these CD's too). This I installed onto my laptop. It took three days to configure and get everything working and then - wow - what a laptop. My little Toshiba Satellite had a P3 processor running at 700 MHz, 192 Mb ram and a 30 Gb hard drive, and it would out perform PCs and laptops of better hardware running the latest from Redmond. I was happy. I eventually gave it to a good home running SimplyMepis, a Debian based Linux OS. I have played and got to know well the Red Hat/Fedora system, the Debian system (and various derivatives), a little bit of Suse, Mandrake/Mandriva, Slackware, Puppy, and some embedded ones too.
Since then I have had to use Windows OS's for a lot of work stuff because my clients and/or employers uses Windows based systems. OK, so now I'm going to have a pop at Windows, and what I found was that it is slow and gets slower over time, it is inherently insecure and you have to install extra software to protect your stuff, it is clunky, and I just don't like to pay for something that is basically incomplete and has known flaws. But it does work and can be made to behave and be relatively secure. I still don't like using Windows and I refuse to do my banking on a windows machine. Just my opinion. I now run Windows in a vm just for testing purposes.
I have used OSX on a Macbook Pro, along side my trusty ThinkPad R61, for a few years as a way to get away from Windows. I needed to use Adobe CS4 which meant either Windows or OSX, and I chose OSX. This was a good learning experience for me for as good as the Mac is, it too has its limitations, mainly imposed by Apple slowly building their walled garden with their increasingly dictatorial and arrogant views on how we should use their products. May be we should just employ Apple to do our work for us! I also run Debian on the Macbook and it runs really well.
And now I'm ready to sell the Mac and live with Linux only!
Next up: Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora? Ubuntu or not Ubuntu, that is the question!