I'd like to start using a CMS. I've been building static XHTML/CSS pages for awhile, but want to get with the times.
I'm PHP illiterate as of yet, so ease of templating and availability of (free) modules are important factors.
From what I've been reading, SilverStripe or MODx sound like good candidates. What do you think?
Wordpress is a great choice(if not the best) if you want a blog.
For anything else i would suggest Joomla. Its one of the most widely used content management systems out there so there is tons of documentation and people who will gladly assist you. Its open source, which means its free. Easy to use, customise and extend. There are thousands of extensions(plugins) for it. Templates (the sites skin(design)) are extremly easy to build, almost no skills in php are nessesary.
Take a peak at it at http://joomla.org
There is a great wiki with everything you need to get started at http://docs.joomla.org/