eric

Well i never used another blog system before and didn’t find it too hard. I did know HTML and CSS, but no php or database stuff. searching thru the forums and occasionally the wiki, i found existing answers to every issue so far. So I’d say you don’t really have to know the backend stuff as long as you’re not planning on doing something exotic.
As for your other questions..
– blogging by email is possible, but I haven’t tried it
– adjusting layout: i would have thought this is just as easy or hard with WP than any other system because it depends on how well you know HTML/CSS much more than it depends on the blog program
– hacks/plugins: can’t comment, haven’t used any
hope this helps

@tacojohn: agreed. but as the user base grows we may well see a few people who can’t be bothered to read the docs and search the forums, and i personally would have no hesitation about calling them freeloaders.
that said, a big welcome to all those other, nice, ex-MTers here! not that i’ve been here long or anything, but if i see a question simple enough for my inexperienced self i will attaempt to answer it.

I just had the same problem with WP1.2 beta on a server using Cpanel, which I’m not really familiar with. After much head-scratching I found out that creating a database and a user is not enough, I also had to “add user to DB”. I don’t mean to suggest that you’re as daft as me, but I’m posting this just in case.

If I understand you, this means installing WP twice – once in the main index and once in the protected directory? The 2nd WP is really just for presenting stuff nicely in chronological order, plus I can divide the password protected category into subcategories later as the amount of content grows (my PHP is not yet good enough to roll my own script). Thought of doing that before but still looking for a way to do it all from one control panel, if poss. But thanks for the suggestion!