Just use tasksel and dselect to begin with. And then mess around with apt-get and dpkg. It will be much easier that way.

And your install should set you up with a fairly good default sources.list. If you want all of the packages available in debian's distribution + security fixes + proposed updates go with something like:
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian dists/potato-proposed-updates/
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian potato main non-free contrib
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US potato non-US/main non-US/contrib non-US/non-free
deb http://security.debian.org potato/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US potato non-US/main non-US/contrib non-US/non-free
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ potato main non-free contrib

After you put that in, run dselect
choose update
choose select
choose install

Then run tasksel, and run select and install again in dselect.

thanks! that was very helpful....

you going with stable or unstable?

unstable

Please write me, please!

VI!

how does it feel to be a man?

heh

what flavor of linux do you recommend for a linux virgin??

Reminder: My only *nix experience is with solaris in the labs here.

mandrake, perhaps? never used it, though.