I love my Weber Smokey Mountain. Very good at holding temps and lots of capacity. It's great if you're going to smoke meat and in larger quantities. Otherwise, a Weber kettle works pretty well. I've used it for ribs with no problems. If you have dreams of smoking fish or cold smoking meats...I'd look at a Bradley.
I use the large Oklahoma Joe from Home Depot. The price is good for the heavy construction, and it works well. If you are a purist (I am), I would definitely buy a model with the the offset firebox -the thing that looks like a mini barrel smoker down and to the side of the main smoker chamber. The reasons why are 1)more surface area for your meat in the main chamber, otherwise half the chamber is the fire and half is for your meat; and 2)temperature. You're smoking, not grilling, therefore you want the direct heat source further away from your meat. In my humble opinion. Now, lots of folks are transitioning to pellet smokers and seem pleased with their results. I havent tried, so can't offer an opinion on them. I know that I get awesome results the traditional way, so that's what I go with.
