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I also bought my first boxster without any stick experience. I had a friend drive it home for me (Orlando to Tampa) and then waited until about 2am to take it on on my neighborhood roads. Yes, I stalled alot that night. But it was a no traffic (and thus no pressure) situation. If you go slow you really can't hurt the car. As has been mentioned above, the key is to get the feel of the engagement point. Once you get it rolling, shifting up the rest of the gears is pretty easy. Anyway, after my night on neighborhood streets, a friend who is big into autoX gave me some tips in the empty parking lot of the community college. The third time I drove it was to work in rush hour traffic. As mentioned above, TERRIFYING but definitely exciting. Now, I won't say I was an expert after 3 times, but I could get the car from point A to point B. Just understand that you will stall a few times and when it happens not to panic but just restart the car and move along. Sure it's embarrassing, especially in heavy traffic, but remember, YOU'RE the one driving the porsche!
My two cents on the Tip vs Manual debate: As someone who uses my boxster as a daily driver I can completely understand the advantages of a Tip. However, after having driven an automatic all of my life (including my first, a '68 Firebird with a 2-speed powerglide), I wanted to learn how to drive a stick. What I have found is that it forces you to focus on driving and this enhances the experience for me. Sure it can be a pain in stop and go. But you also get thrills at other times that you just can't get from putting it in drive and hitting the gas. And, it makes you more aware of what is going on around you, which is even more important with an increasing amount of drivers using the luxury of automatic to focus on other things (cell phones, makeup, etc) instead of concentrating on the road.
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Hybrid Mode
