Installing 'raspian-ua-netinst'

Download the image

Start by downloading the latest build from GitHub and unzip it.
Next, format an SD-card as FAT32 and put the unzipped files on the card. If during unzipping, the files are put in a directory then only transfer the files in it to the root directory of the card.
Put the SD-card in the Pi and power it up.
After about 15...20 minutes the Pi will reboot and a login prompt will appear. If you have a headless Pi you'll need to wait for at least 15 minutes before attempting an ssh login.

Then try to log in using ssh.
Login with root / raspbian
Change the root password to something else.

# passwd 

Update the locale:

# dpkg-reconfigure locales

Select the appropriate locale. I always use en_US.UTF8. Then also set this as the default.
Next, configure the timezone:

# dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Those who don't like or understand vi can now install nano:

# apt-get install nano

Set the hostname to something you like better than the default 'pi'

# nano /etc/hostname 

Then make it possible to login remotely via SSH without getting loads of locale related errors.

# nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Comment out the line that reads AcceptEnv LANG LC_*
Then regenerate new SSH-keys for extra security:

# rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
# dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server

Make a note of the IP-address (if you have the luxury of a monitor and keyboard):

# ifconfig

(If you're using a headless Pi, you will have had to find out the IP-address earlier.)

Then reboot.

# reboot

It is now possible to safely login from a remote terminal (e.g. PuTTY on Windows or iTerm.app on OSX). At this point it would be a good idea to do an update/upgrade cycle:

# apt-get update
# apt-get autoclean
# apt-get autoremove
# apt-get -yuV upgrade

This last command tells me that it didn't upgrade all the software:

Reading package lists... DoneBuilding dependency treeReading state information... DoneThe following packages have been kept back:   libgcc1 (4.7.2-5+rpi1 => 4.8.2-21~rpi3rpi1)   libstdc++6 (4.7.2-5+rpi1 => 4.8.2-21~rpi3rpi1)0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded. 

This is fixed by the command:

# apt-get -yuV dist-upgrade

There are a couple of packages I like to use, that can be installed now.

# apt-get install screen lsof bc htop raspi-copies-and-fills apt-utils sudo nfs-common rsync

These will pull in a host of other packages that are required. Just, sit back and wait...

For added security, now create a new user with sudo privileges that can be used instead of the root-account. For the example here I will use the username 'pi'. You might want to use something else.

# adduser pi

This will ask for a passwd to set for the new user and some (optional) accounting information.
Then add the new user to some useful groups:

# usermod -a -G sudo pi
# usermod -a -G adm pi
# usermod -a -G users pi
# usermod -a -G video pi
# usermod -a -G dialout pi

Prevent having to type your password at every 'sudo' you do.

# visudo

Change this line:
%sudo   ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL
To look like this:
%sudo   ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

I also like to move some parts of the filingsystem to RAM:

# nano /etc/fstab

add these lines:
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nodev,nosuid,size=30M,mode=1777                 0 0
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime,nosuid,mode=0755,size=100M 0 0

Next, reboot and you'll be able to login with the newly created user. Then edit the .profile file:

$ nano .profile

And add this line at the end of the file
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:$PATH"

Having created an extra user with sudo privileges it is time to take away some of the privileges of the root-account.

$ sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Find the line reading:
PermitRootLogin yes
And change the yes to a no.

Extended installation

Create a mountpoint for future use.

$ sudo mkdir /mnt/share1

I'll be using nfs to mount a drive from one of the servers on my local network. To prevent problems with slow mounts I need to blacklist a kernel-module. I have no idea why, but this seems to work. Other Pies in my network, running a full Raspbian version don't have this problem but also don't use this fix. Again, I don't have a clue why.

$ sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Then add this line:
blacklist rpcsec_gss_krb5

Create various folders

$ mkdir etc
$ mkdir bin
$ mkdir bin/run

If you're using this Pi as a headless machine there is no need for all the gettys so we'll disable a couple as follows:
First make a backup of the original

$ sudo cp /etc/inittab /etc/inittab.org
$ sudo nano /etc/inittab

Find these lines and comment them out:
#3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
#4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
#5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
#6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6
Then make a backup copy of the final file

$ cp /etc/inittab ~/etc/inittab

I like a coloured terminal, so I'll set up .bashrc to support that:

$ nano .bashrc

First, find this line and uncomment it:

force_color_prompt=yes

then scroll down and make changes so these lines read as follows:

    alias grep='grep --color=auto'
    alias fgrep='fgrep --color=auto'
    alias egrep='egrep --color=auto'
fi

# some more ls aliases
alias ll='ls -l'
alias la='ls -al'
#alias l='ls -CF'

(Additionally you may want to create a file .dircolors and fill it with your desired definitions. This is outside the scope of this howto. Google is your friend).

Reduce the amount of video memory to the bare minimum:

$ nano /boot/config.txt

Add this line:
gpu_mem=16

Reboot and log back in, to make all the above changes take effect in one go.

$ sudo reboot

Finally

The number of packages installed on my Pi is now:

$ dpkg -l |wc -l

180

For comparison, on a default Raspbian system I have running it is 825!
Remember to regularly (e.g. once a week) execute an update/upgrade cycle (as described above) to ensure you are on the most up-to-date version of the operating system.