OK, now have Debian up and running and kinda usable as a Desktop system.

Still lots of tweakage to be done, but it's there, and it works.

In short, zIWT and TWIT have been invaluable, as was Knoppix 3.3. I took the approach suggested by several people, and just did a minimal base install, with the intention of apt-getting my way to happiness. So far, that's worked.

I'm running Stable, but don't know how long that'll last, as I am a bit prone to 'easily distracted by shiny things' syndrome, and the standard Gnome 1.4 install isn't exactly shiny. But I'll follow the 'stay with Stable for a month or three' suggestion before I go breaking stuff :)