Towards an instructive minimalist intall of Openbox

[Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net>]

My goal:     understand Debian from a fairly low level on up
Environment: a laptop dedicated exclusively as a learning environment
Resources:   complete DVD sets for Squeeze and Wheezy (totally 
isolated from internet ;)

History:
When initially moving from Windows to Debian, installed Squeeze 
with Gnome2. A generally satisfactory experience though standard 
install had programs I would never use and was missing essential 
programs. I was tweaking it when I obtained Wheezy.

Gnome3 is an ugly non-starter. Investigating relative merits of 
DE's led to understanding difference between a DE and a WM (thank 
you to list for educational posts).

What should I be reading to understand:
  1. what would be minimal set of programs to install?
  2. what scripts get run after a cold or warm boot?
     (I've discovered I know less about that than I thought I did.)

Thank you.