The Debian Xfce and KDE groups
I knew there was a Debian KDE group but just did a search and found out that there's a Debian Xfce group as well.
I plan to explore the Xfce group's links soon. Both Debian and Slackware run wicked fast with Xfce, but there's a whole lot missing when you do the Xfce install (no Synaptic, for instance, and no GUI mail client).
For now, I recommend starting with the default GNOME or KDE desktops in Debian and adding Xfce on top of that. That way you have all the utilities you need but can work in Xfce whenever you want. On the other hand, the Debian Xfce install uses relatively little disk space (and that's with Open Office). My current Debian Xfce install, with nothing extra, is 1.8 GB in size. That doesn't include swap or space for /home, so you could set up a 128 MB swap space and still have plenty of room for user files on a small hard drive.
Looking at it a different way, if you're comfortable using apt-get at the command line to do updates (and it's not hard to get such comfort), you don't really need Synaptic.
On my laptop with Etch/Xfce, I've been trying to get the hang of using Aptitude, Debian's more-involved command-line package manager. I've been able to use it, but it is a bit confusing; I could use a detailed tutorial. One thing Aptitude does that neither apt nor Synaptic do (or so I'm told) is keep a record of everything you do with it. I don't know how to access that record, but I like the idea of keeping track of your updated, new and deleted packages. On the other hand, I also like how pkgtool in Slackware lets you see ALL of your packages -- it's a lot more visceral than apt.
'Holy crap' moment of the day: My Maxspeed Maxterm converted thin client is notoriously BAD when it comes to multimedia. Videos are jerky, as are MP3s ... even in Puppy Linux, only the console app Madplayer can play an MP3 without it skipping. But I'm using Xfmedia in Xfce to play a song, and it sounds PERFECT. Thanks, Debian!
Flash in Debian Xfce: Since MP3s went so well, I decided to get the Flash plugin for Iceweasel (aka Firefox). This works for me about half the time. I went to a Web page on which I knew there would be Flash, and Iceweasel prompted me to install Flash. I did, and now it's installed. Flash video and audio is still pretty sketchy -- no miracles there. But having smooth MP3 playback is pretty nice.