Some OS like Slackware come with an optional screen manager called
xfce. Does Debian? If not has anyone installed anyhow with success?
It's on all my Debian stable computers except the Macs (Dell and Supermicro servers, a Sun workstation, GoBook laptops, and several flavors of Raspberry Pis). Works good everywhere.
It calls itself XFCE4 now. Try adding the '4' to find it in the Debian repos. And install the xfce4 goodies.
I'd also suggest replacing their GUI login page with Slim and the network manager (if you need one) with WICD.