[X-Unix] Which Window manager/Desktop Environment

[~flipper]

I do a lot of work with SGML/XML as my job.

I have a crippled Ti 667 at home (6 yr-old PC at work). I can haul 
through the deepest Dep't of defense DTDs and do maybe 500 pages a 
week, converting text, pdf, whatever into interactive SGML/XML docs.

I'm shopping for a new Aluminum powerbook, now, and thought I'd look 
into converting the 667 to an open source box.

Now i remember why i trashed Fink a few years ago. Some apps only 
work with libraries that are only compatible with Gnome or KDE, some 
will work with both... a wrong lib install at some point can preclude 
using a certain app, later, what a mess.

The Leafs will win the Cup before this thing dominates the desktop, 
no question. Still, I saw a lot of XML parsers (pretty trivial 
concern, all the best ones are java, anyway), but i need apps that i 
can use to turn doctickets into trees, an app to tag those packages 
in the trees into standalone, partially-coded docs to begin the work 
with, and an app that shows the DTD graphically (a tree for legal 
contents and parents), separate attributes window, etc. It's just 
format to plain text, tag it, build it. Not rocket science (although 
some of my work involves rocket science <laughs>).

I do docs that incorporate very heavily-nested sequential lists, 
without a visual validator, so i don't need 3D icons and brushed 
aluminum to get the job done. It's all in the tags.

Most of the packages I looked at, that had XML somewhere in the 
title, were GNOME apps. Isn't GNOME a PC on linux thing, or is that a 
newbie myth that i subscribe to?

My other idea is to just load the 667 with Darwin, no GUI, and go 
from there, but i'd stll have to place a 'bet' on one main version of 
the management software and hope the suite of apps i find will 
function within it. Any suggestions?

After reading all night through the documentation on a few sites, i 
remembered back a ways, having a huge install that led to catch-22s, 
like you can load this font package, but you'll need to trash that 
lib, which will kill your environment manager... you know, crazy. If 
I can do everything using java, a bit of our company's proprietary 
stuff, and run-->cmd on a PC, then it seems all of that should be 
easy to cobble together in the OpenSource world, no? What am i 
missing here?

Thanks for any advice. :)

Brian S.