Is there a big difference? What is the top recommended one? Can you still use EasyMiner as a GUI even if you don't have BFL hardware?
Which is easiest to configure to start back up if your system crashes, shuts down or reboots, etc.?
Which is easiest to configure to start back up if your system crashes, shuts down or reboots, etc.?
I don't think there's a big difference when it comes to performance. It's more about the features. BitMinter is very easy to use and has a nice UI for setting things up. However, it only works with the BitMinter BTC pool. This is okay if you use BitMinter as a pool but you have no option for failover with the BitMinter client if the pool is down.
Both cgminer and bfgminer are the de facto standard when it comes to mining. They give good performance, support a wide range of hardware, and support advanced features like failover. They are also not tied to any particular pool. I personally use bfgminer as it seems to give me less trouble with USB devices than cgminer.
I do not personally have any experience with the Ufasoft miner, but I don't see it discussed / used much.
If you are looking for an easy way to configure and monitor mining you may want to check out MultiMiner. It's a graphical mining application that uses either cgminer or bfgminer to do the actual mining. It has a setup wizard and will automatically download the miners you need to get started.