It's kind of sad that this turned into a giant alcohol stoves are dangerous debate. I'm a little surprised though that so many use alcohol stoves. I thought they would be a little too fringy outside of the lightweight backpacker community but I guess there are a lot of similarities.

I used my pop can alcohol stove for close to 200 days in '07/'08 while hiking the PCT and it was perfect. However no stove is perfect for all situations. Alcohol stoves have their drawbacks but I really don't have a problem waiting an extra 5 minutes.

I've used the MSR pocket rocket a lot and it's really nice to cook on but I dislike the canister issue and I can't use larger pots on it.

I've used the old school whisperlite a lot also and it's great to cook on but when things go wrong they can really go wrong (like impossible to cook).

The other intriguing option are the small contained wood burning stoves. I know some will immediately say this is a huge fire hazard but they haven't seen these in operation then. This is great because you have a 5-6 oz stove and you don't have to carry any fuel. Of course you have collect some twigs every time you want to cook. Your pot also becomes a sooty mess. One of my PCT friends seemed to always be covered in soot.