locales and timezone

After a debootstrap follow set the locales and the timezone. I'd also recommend to install ntp to keep time in sync.

apt-get install ntp
/etc/init.d/ntp restart
hwclock --systohc

zsh

apt-get install zsh

An enhanced shell which is my favourite one. The default config is really bad so I recommend to use the grml zsh config. You either add the grml repositories to you sources.list.

deb     http://deb.grml.org/ grml-stable  main
deb-src http://deb.grml.org/ grml-stable  main

To add the keyring you would have to

apt-get update
apt-get --allow-unauthenticated install grml-debian-keyring

Now you can install the grml-etc-core

apt-get install grml-etc-core

Here you also retrieve a nice screen config. Or you can simply replace the /etc/zsh/zshrc

wget -O /etc/zsh/zshrc http://git.grml.org/f/grml-etc-core/etc/zsh/zshrc

The downside is that you want receive updates through the dpkg system. Now it's time to change the login shell for root

usermod -s /bin/zsh root

editor

I love emacs, so I'd do

apt-get install emacs
update-alternatives --config editor

etckeeper

It's really cool to keep everything inside /etc inside git. There is a tool to do so

apt-get install etckeeper
etckeeper init

You can configure etckeeper to use hg or bzr but I'd say git is fine.

sudo

You really should use sudo if you need temporary root access

apt-get install sudo
chmod u+w /etc/sudoers
emacs /etc/sudoers       # add 'your_username  ALL=(ALL) ALL'
chmod u-w /etc/sudoers

And now test it

sudo -i

(a way to get a permanent root shell through sudo)