Just to remind you about that easy installation and configuration tool : Debian Pure, which offers most usefull pluggins, kde, gnome and a plain vanilla Debian system in just 1 cd....
I post today because Debian pure really helped me out, since I am still a bit of a newbie. So I guess it might be helpfull to other newbies who are starting to realise that Debian 3.1 is the best distro (it's only my opinion...) and also a great way to learn more about Linux in general.
