Ferret,
I have evolved over the last thirty-seven years of camping and gone through the white gas and into the propane age. I own a Coleman white gas stove but have not set it up for a good five years, I'll wager.
I own two two-burner stoves made by American Camper, and have not looked back. One is the primary unit, the other is "backup". (Always have backup!)
For the little bit of cooking I do in camp, coffee and grits or summat in the morning, dinner and hot rum toddies or soo-bok in the evening, plus dish washing, the stove uses maybe 1-1/2 (max) pounds a week. Add guests or elaborate fare and the cost in gas goes up. The stoves are lightweight and take up little space. They have never failed. The box they go in measures 17x9x2". If I were to start over, maybe I would buy the Coleman full-size propane stove, with the wings to fight drafts outside. One with more room for bigger pots or more of them.
Been running the floor heater offa the 20-lb. tank for years. Crapped out this year, and will have to look for another. Also, for the last 8 years or so I have been using a two-burner radiant heater unit on top of a twenty-pounder. I call it "the Pregnant Lady" and for a three-walled log shelter with tarps over the front, she is perfect. You can run one or two burners at a time, and it has a high and low setting. With four walls she'd run you outta there real quick, looking for a snowbank to roll in! Too big for a tent, though. Too much heat and too much oxygen consumption.
We use both white gas and propane lanterns. The lanterns we have are cheap one-mantle jobbies that screw onto the top of a 1-lb bottle, and are quick to set up and light. They suck as a source of reading light, however, and that's what the white gas lanterns are used for. My buddy brought up his Coleman two-burner propane lantern this year, and the light is awesome. Coupled with the fact that you don't have to pump it up every so often, I think that would be the way to go. It even outshone the white gas lanterns. Makes me wish I didn't own 5 of the puppies, so I could feel better about buying the propane one!
Camp Mantra, "Thank you Mr. Coleman!"
Killdeer~the opinionated~but definitely warm and well-fed.