fighters, paladins, barbarians, and rangers, what has always annoyed me

[Fenris]

Crothian,
Does a non fighter/barbarian/ranger/paladin who uses a feat still get one weapon or a category of weapons? If they got a category I can certainly see more characters taking it.

Not really, this is what I use:

The feat “Martial Weapons” is now divided into the following Categories: Axes, Hammers/Picks, Lances, Swords, Flails, Pole arms, and Bows. Fighters know all of them, Barbarians, Paladins, and Rangers may choose 3 of them. Each category may be chosen with a feat. Axes: Throwing axe, hand axe, battle axe, great axe, dwarven waraxe (wielded as a Large weapon), halberd. Hammers/Picks: Light hammer, warhammer, light pick, heavy pick, greatclub, sap. Lances: Light lance, heavy lance. Swords: Short sword, long sword, rapier, scimitar, falchion, great sword, bastard sword (wielded as a Large weapon). Flails: Light flail, heavy flail. Polearms: Glaive, guisarme, ranseur, longspear, halberd, scythe. Bows: Short and long regular and composite bows

 

[RHM]

There's a thread on the WotC boards related to weapon skills/ranks here:

Weapon Ranks

It basically gives Fighters all the martial weapons but breaks BAB into weapon ranks that can either be spent on buying attack bonuses with specific groups of weapons, or trading the ranks in for skill points and even combat-related feats.