I've installed xmonad. I'm trilled with it. I can now use it as my one and only WM. I'm just wondering is it going to work without problems if I totally remove Gnome.
I'm using Ubuntu 10.04.
It's a bit of a hassle, but i would re-install the whole system without X (using the the MinimalCD version of Ubuntu), and then perform a clean install of Xorg and XMonad:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install xorg xinit
sudo apt-get install xmonad
... plus all the other small stuff you need; mail client, web browser,
This way you will get a clean and lightweight system. Typing startx will start X
X wont start automatically during boot, you'll have to configure that.
A clean installation like this will not have some of the fancy tools included in a vanilla ubuntu workstation, like Network Manager. See it as a chance to learn Ubuntu/linux from the inside.
Use xset and xterm to configure screensaver/powersave, use xrand to set monitor resolution.
