I've tried tiling WMs a few times and liked awesome but at least at the time there were too many problems. Is it now easy to set up a launcher/start bar with a

I've tried tiling WMs a few times and liked awesome but at least at the time there were too many problems. Is it now easy to set up a launcher/start bar with a nice battery/volume/wifi etc. indicator? Do all Windows open normally? Do you get any crashes? Are there any WM-specific settings/fixes you have to tweak more often than once every 6 months?