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what I think of XOOPS as an old user:
it has been (despite very esporadic ups and downs) under very good hands until now. Code wise, it's clearness, and advantages it can give, is being kept until today's date. Being it a process under evolution you must keep up to date with the activity that evolves until the current date.
to answer your questions:
A) static home pages: nothing is "STATIC" here.
WELCOME TO "WEB 2.0"
B) News on the side bar: search for the latest news module by Herve Thouzard
C) Custom Themes: not only do I make part of xoopsdesign.com, which makes custom XOOPS designs and offers other kind of XOOPS help, there are lots of other people worth mentioning like davidl2, bassman, among others you can find in the Themes news section.