LinuxQuestions.org - From Ubuntu with Gnome to Ubuntu with Icewm, Advice

Hi! I'm new to this forum, but I've been using Ubuntu Linux since October of last year, (approx). I recently had the internet set up at my house, (rather than having to go to the library every day) and discovered that using the internet and everything that I like to do on my computer uses up my RAM. My computer is a blueberry clamshell PPC iBook, with 128MB ram and 3 GIG HD space.

You see my problem? I had the idea of trying a lightweight desktop; an ubuntu server install and IceWM. I've written down many sets of instructions given by different places on how to go about the install, so I know basically what to do at installation, but I need some other advice before I go through all the trouble of installing and having something not working right. So it's PowerPC; IceWm IS compatible with PPC correct? Or should I use Fluxbox instead? This is the question I'm still considering, though I'm leaning strongly to IceWM. I wanted Enlightenment, but from what I can tell it doesn't support PPC yet.

Now beyond IceWM, I have a few ideas. Web Browser, I have considered getting the resent version of Firefox, and installing it from the binary, rather than doing apt-get for the ubuntu version. I'm told the official version runs faster. But what about other light weight browsers? Would something like dillo be better for me, until I see how much space I can risk for a good browser? Mozilla and Firefox are what I'm used to using, and at the library I use Epiphany (all our cities libraries run Linux. So boss!)

I also was interested in Thunar for a file manager, it just came out, anybody with IceWm whose tried Thunar? Or is there some other file manager that's low on the resources load that I should know about.

What I do on the computer? Internet, writing (I prefer to use abiword for large documents, or gedit for single text files), some pictures, I like to store lots of pictures to use for backdrops, (I like having a big colorful background picture, but the panels and windows don't have to be pretty. Icons are something I like to play with sometimes, and I plan to make my own icon set based on the Harry Potter books and movies.) I also do some art and I'm used to using Gimp, but maybe I could switch to something lighter. What about inkscape, what's that like?

Hope this gives you an idea of what sort of functionality I want. I'd rather not switch from Ubuntu, since I already have the Live and Install disks for Breezy, and Dapper is on its way to my mail box.

Thanks in advance everyone. :) Hoping this community proves to be very friendly and helpful, I've been on communities where my questions are basically out right ignored and nobody tells me why. O_o Thinking this place is going to be better.