Re: unhealthy gnome obsession
@tastyminerals: you suggested using "simple, unobstructed and fast interfaces", can you list some that you have used?
I think the choice of DE comes down to a few more factors than your experience with linux or age. On a server platform I typically don't even bother with a GUI interface, command line all the way - faster and easier to work with (at least it is for me). On a desktop it depends on what kind of hardware you have and what the purpose is. I have used other lower overhead DE on desktop systems that had very limited resources (i.e. no way Gnome was going to run on it, and for the purpose I was using it for it was overkill).
