I am trying to determine the easiest to use static site generator. I have found there are now several hundred static site generators and I understand most of these are forks of the main static site generators.<p>By easiest I mean the most user friendly to set-up and create a site, best documentation, and has an active group of users/community.
It really boils down to your language preference:<p>For Ruby: Jekyll <a href="http://jekyllrb.com" rel="nofollow">http://jekyllrb.com</a> or Middleman <a href="https://middlemanapp.com" rel="nofollow">https://middlemanapp.com</a> (in case you want a site rather than a blog)
For Python: Pelican <a href="http://blog.getpelican.com" rel="nofollow">http://blog.getpelican.com</a>
Inspired by your question I had a quick Google.<p>This one seems quite easy <a href="http://gohugo.io" rel="nofollow">http://gohugo.io</a>.<p>You download the built binary, no dependencies, lots of themes available. Had it working in a few minutes. (The git clone step didn't work for me but I just went to github and downloaded the zip.)
Checkout Olai, (<a href="http://olai.in" rel="nofollow">http://olai.in</a>), a hosted static site generator. Nothing to setup. Connect Amazon S3 or Github page and you are done. Bonus: Use your desktop blog editors, like MarsEdit.<p>Disclosure: Olai is my baby.
Jekyll.<p>If you are just getting started, you can read this tutorial I wrote for SitePoint:<p><a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/set-jekyll-blog-5-minutes-poole/" rel="nofollow">http://www.sitepoint.com/set-jekyll-blog-5-minutes-poole/</a>
What purpose are you using them for? I tried Jekyll and found it just got in the way of me creating sites, so I found Middleman.<p>Middleman is <i>much</i> easier than Jekyll if you want to build any kind-of normal non-blog website.
CityDesk: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityDesk" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CityDesk</a><p>(or it was 15 years ago)
>It really boils down to your language preference:<p>I was looking for the easiest-setup, operation, posting on web, updating content etc.<p>In this way I have only the preference of simple use.