Installing and maintaining R on Ubuntu 9.04 - best practice

Is there a best practice for installing and updating R on Ubuntu ?

I've had to clean install Ubuntu so I am starting from fresh.  I have
picked up various comments about ONLY using Synaptic OR only using
apt-get  OR only running update from inside R.

Being new to Ubuntu this is a bit confusing. Last time round I
installed  via Synaptic, but not all packages were available so
installed packages and run updates from R, but it was suggested this
bad practice. So before I start afresh, can anyone give me some
pointers on the best way of doing this.

Many thanks,

Graham