I have a glass cooktop and use cast iron, etc. The only issue you might have with weight is if you do canning--some of the giant canners full of water might be pushing it for weight. I've never heard of damage from the weight of a canner, but some manufacturers do warn against it.

You can use all the things you mentioned on a glass/ceramic top electric range, although you have to be careful that non-enameled cast iron doesn't scratch the surface. Many of your list (copper, glass, ceramic) won't work on induction ranges. Is that what you meant?

Not what I meant, but maybe what the people saying 'alarming things' meant.

Whew! Good to know.

Yeah, I'm not so much into a fancy $2500 stovetop that I can't even cook on. I'd honestly love to have gas, but without having to actually go to the trouble of running the gas lines and so on. If the house just magically grew a gas stove, that'd be cool. :)

I assume that you have to be careful about banging things on it, tho. So my brother, who cooks like a chef--tossing things by jogging the pan and so on--would have to be kept from the kitchen.

If you love gas, get an estimate on how much it would cost to run a gas line. Your appliance store can do this for you or call your local fireplace store. My husband runs gas lines all the time for people that thought it would be a lot more complicated than it is. You should be able to get an estimate by phone.
Otherwise, have you considered induction?
Explore your options so you are happy with your purchase.
Good Luck.

Another thing to be noted: smooth top electric stoves do not work with pans with warped bottoms. I did not realize this (having only ever used an electric coil stove) and had to replace almost all of my pots and pans (which weren't very expensive thankfully) that had warped bottoms. When I would try to use them, they would not heat properly (because of the lack of contact) and interestingly would spin around in a circle on the stove. I also no longer use my non-enameled cast iron pans and intend to replace them with some nice enameled cast iron pans (hopefully Le Creuset).

I just recently converted from a glass top electric to gas. Never used copper bottom pots on it because my mom told me that they will discolor the glass... don't know if its true but I never took that chance! The glass looked like crap in the end anyways (after 10 years and no neglect)

''I assume that you have to be careful about banging things on it, tho. So my brother, who cooks like a chef--tossing things by jogging the pan and so on--would have to be kept from the kitchen.''

You can't drop a cast iron pot on it from a 3 foot high with impunity, but I've 'jogged pans' and dropped spice bottles, utensils, and a half-full teapot on mine without any ill effects. Your brother can probably be trained. :-)

Personally, I use whatever I want on my glass top. And prickly' is correct about the warped bottoms. LOL.

I live in an all electric neighborhood and a couple of people have a 100 gal propane tank just so they can have a gas range.

Yeah, my grandma's pans were all pretty bad w/ the warping. I don't know how she used them, honestly, old-fashioned coils or no. They would hardly stand up.

Warmfridge, I'm glad to hear that I won't have to tiptoe around the thing. We do drop stuff from time to time, altho not usually the cast iron (use 2 hands for that).

I have used all my old and very old cast iron pans on a glass cook top range with no problems.I do not know why people like gas so much. I wouldn't have all that polution and danger in my house.

If it helps...our old smoothtop (glass/ceramic) top range (GE Profile convection) was 13 years old when we redid the kitchen. We did not baby it at all and we dropped all kinds of things on it over those years (although, no cast iron from a distance). We also dragged the pots across the glass all the time...

When we redid the kitchen in January 2008...it looked almost as good as the day we bought it. We donated it to our church and they in turn gave it to a family in need...the last I heard (last summer), it's still going strong and they love it!