OpenZaurus is pretty much open but you do not full functionality since it is constantly being worked on by a few individuals
pdaXrom is great but last i tested it, has various bugs that seems to need fixing. I am waiting on this one myself.
Cacko rom from maslovsky.....this one is great for newbie beginners. It is a polished sharprom with the extra bells and whistles that you are looking for.
Now the sharprom is very and extremely versitile. You already have a large user-friendly database and you can install meani's XQT which will open a new environemnt with the X stuff. silpheed is possible, dillo, firefox, DEBIAN, openoffice, and the list goes on and on.
I am using the sharprom on a c1000.
I am going to suggest a few things.
For a newbie, stick with the sharprom. Get familiar with the unit first and read the pro's and cons of the other zaurus images. Install my snes packages and nes emulators to keep you busy for a while....go to zaurusthemes.org and install the gant or oslinux themes or my noia theme which i am almost done with. go to zaurusvideo and install the video applications that enables you to run videos from your pda. look for my thread about blues and you can download the files needed to get bluez running. Some files are almost none existant in the net and the ones who have them, can email it to you. I am working updating the shoutcast software for the zaurus so you can listen to streaming audio anywere there is wifi. There is already one but it needs to be configured to read the stuff in english manually. Install XQT and the various x softwares and then decide if you really want to try the other rom images. get the KO/PI for your zaurus since this is the best addressbook and calendar out there. If you have any problems, get in touch with me or anybody and its funny thing that everybody is so eager to help each other out.
Keep an eye out for openzaurus and pdaxrom. They are not done but man they look so cool.
check out meanies site for super customizations on sharprom.
http://www.users.on.net/~hluc/myZaurus/jumbo/xqtjumbo.htmlthis one gives you just software
http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/ and as well as elsi here at zaurususergroup
check my signature down for my links for snes emulator and zaurusvideo.
sharprom running gant theme
[img]http://www.zaurusthemes.org/oddpics/mysecondchoice.jpg\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
pdaxrom
[img]http://www.zaurususergroup.com/images/screenshot.png\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]
e17
[img]http://hentges.net/tmp/screenshots/Enlightenment-Zaurus/port.32458.png\" border=\"0\" class=\"linked-image\" /]