Hello I would just like to ask advice on the size of Swap I should install on a fresh install of Debian stable, current, 6.0.3 on a HP Compaq nc6320,

40 gb hard drive space

It will be sharing the drive with my current lucid installation.

1.5 gb RAM

Dual core intel T5500 @ 1.66 GHz

Perhaps I should split the hard drive in half or 10 gb of hard disk drive are enough for my new Debian?

I would like to add that my motivation for this Debian install is purely for education and training purposes so that I become more proficient in operating and maintaining a Debian OS and therefore I shall not need alot of free space. Also, I use a external hard drive.

Thankyou.

OP, from what you said, the two pieces of information that I believe are relevant to getting an answer to swap space are:
and
Based on that, I would say have a 0 size swap (no swap). The worst that can happen is you get memory starvation alerts and that in itself is good training to see how a system responds. Also, how to setup a new swap file after an installation (temporary or otherwise) is also good to know, should you need it.
Professionally, I rarely have a swap larger than 100MB on production machines because personally I don't want my applications swapping out (easy to say when someone else is paying for RAM, but then again, a slow (because it is swapping) application is of bigger concern than the price of RAM these days anyway).

Also, 10GB of HDD should be sufficient to get you going on your training installation. It easier to add later than to take it away.

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Thankyou Sir Quez, I have installed before this reply and actually, what I did, for now, was follow the installer guide for a full diskspace install because I tried first with a 10 gb install, but when I realised that I could actually make Debian work, it is not as difficult as I used to think, I just decided to stop working with Ubuntu, because Ubuntu to me was just a starting point to one day be able to work full time Debian. So I went ahead with the full disk space install, 40 GB.

However, because this laptop was bought as a secondary work laptop, whose purpose is proficiency self training in Debian, I am very probably going to do a new install one of these days, and perhaps then I will choose 0 swap.

I chose the guided swap management that automatically suggested 1.4 GB SWAP.

So I installed, no GUI. After installing and starting the TTY1 command line, I installed xorg, then fluxbox.

Now I am in the process of installing the applications I need to work.

It is very nice to actually "build" your own operating system and keeping it so streamlined and "skeletonized".

Do you, Sir Quez, agree that I should keep all applications inside the X system in the sense that I will not install Kfoo (Okular), (Kate), "K" or Gnome products so that they don't install libraries from those desktop managers and therefore keep this operating system at a minimum resource usage and maximum efficiency?

I am therefore installing Xpdf instead of Okular, and avoid installing any file manager.

I believe this thread has been resolved, and thankyou again.

Now i need help setting up a good wifi manager, light and reliable. Possibly not much to choose from. And I also need help with the audio drivers and setting up an external screen. The type of operations that kept me from going directly from windows to Debian without first adapting to Ubuntu.