the install with lxde is much more of a breeze for the less technical amongst us. Just start the net-install cd, select advanced options and the choose alternative options. Select lxde and then install in the usual way. I have selected desktop and standard and this installs lxde rather than the standard gnome.
I left it like this because it offers the minimal install I would have chosen anyway. Copying libflashplayer.so to /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins works for i386 platform. I find this the easiest way to install flash 10.
same customisation for alsa like in lenny
and that’s about it.