sudo
it is much safer to login as sudo, that to login as root
1. login as root
2. apt-get install sudo
3. edit /etc/sudoers
3. sudo bash  (instead of root)

gkrellm
this is nice, tells your cpu usage, battery power, time, memory usage
1. login as root/sudo bash
2. apt-get install gkrellm

fluxbox
fluxbox is a nice, simple, small window manager -- a tad nicer than blackbox
1. login as root
2. apt-get install fluxbox
3. xinit
4. fluxbox
(next time your reboot it will load automatically)