My progression/path: JWM/ROX-filer > OpenBox/PYpanel > straight up ratpoison.
Nowadays I'm a hamstrung cripple if forced to use an OS with a DE/WM that's heavily reliant on the dreaded rodent. One can trick out OpenBox pretty seriously if you want to spend the time with configurations, but for this humble soul, it's ratpoison FTW.
Regards, Jeff
Or, abandon the desktop environment all together, and just go with a
window manager, a panel and Debian-menu (I use Openbox and LXPanel).
