How do you do it in two floppies? Last time I tried it forced me to use three.
I used either compact or ide-pci, I forget which, rescue and root disks, and with a supported ethernet card (no modules, only the built into the kernel ones), it will detect that you can do a network install of everything, include the rescue disk contents. I think I lucked out with this particular machine, because a number of other installs have needed the driver disk, etc. :)
But it can be done in just 2 floppies. (maybe one 2.88 :) but that's a stretch)As for the comment about CD installs, everyone can do a CD install, everyone does. The beauty of Debian's mirror system is that it makes the CD less important, and someone who has a running system never needs to buy/burn a CD again. Try that with a Mandrake, RedHat, etc.