I know this is a very old thread, but I just thought I would add my two penneth, purely from recent experience.
I agree with all the mods here. I downloaded Joomla 10 days ago, installation went smoothish after a few false starts and forum posts but then it took me 2 days to work out how to send emails via a registration form. I got so frustrated trying to get my head around other "easy" exercises, I decided to look elsewhere.
I came across Necleus, another "easy" cms. As I had some installation experience I was okay there, but 3 days later I had gotten no where near sending emails through the registration page. A so called guru moderator gave me less than helpful advice as to the definite existance of a templete.
there should be one somewhere
. There wasn't!
I installed cmsmade simple today. A breeze.
Although and here is where you need to listen up. The documentation explicitly states to see
Install on Local Windows PC
if that is what I want to do, but I haven't found that document and have not had a forum reply to a previous post earlier today, or an email from the feedback section.
However, moving on to completion, I have managed to cover more ground with cmsmadesimple in a few hours than I have with any others I have looked at. I was getting fed up with the term "easy" being used far too liberally. Even cmsmadesimple can't really claim that. If you think I am wrong, ask your Mother if she can set it up without any help from you personally, no ints and no suggestions.
I am a certified html website designer with absolutely no exprience of cms, only that I once logged into a joomla site. I have basic knowledge and experience with css and some knowledge but no experience of php other than that I can get hints from the code. I am looking at setting up a jargon busting pc knowledge base to benefit faint hearted users and turned to cms to save me having to design, plus I need to allow users to get involved. I feel I will be using cmsmadesimple as the system of choice and will give it a fair and honest review.
I love the default install in that it acts much like a tutorial as well as informative reading from the get go. Well done!