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Old 04-27-2015, 12:08 PM   #1
punchy71
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2 questions about installing Debian for the first time


Greetings,
I am wanting to install Debian for the first time on an old, spare laptop that I had laying around from the Windows 7 era. It has the following hardware specs:
*AMD Athlon II Dual-core m300 2.00GHz
*3 GB of memory

I currently have the ability to install either version 7.6, 7.8 or 8.0 of Debian onto this machine. I was wondering which version is suitable to run on this laptop?

Also; I'm wanting to install either the Gnome 2 or MATE (or possibly even the Enlightenment) desktop environment and was wondering if that is an option at the time of install or is it handled some other way?

Thank you
 
Old 04-27-2015, 12:21 PM   #2
TobiSGD
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I would recommend to go for the 8.0 version. Every of those versions you listed is suited for your hardware, but you shouldn't use 7.6, it will be upgraded to 7.8 anyways once you install updates.
8.0 will offer you a desktop environment to choose from, AFAIK it offers Gnome 3, KDE 4, XFCE, MATE, Cinnamon and LXDE, but you can install any DE or WM afterwards (alternatively, do not install any DE/WM and then just install the one you want after the installation).
 
Old 04-27-2015, 12:23 PM   #3
jlinkels
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Use the latest version. It is better and more secure. Newer does not mean slower or more bloated.

Gnome used to be the default DE for Debian, and it was installed automatically. I am not sufficiently acquinted with the latest installer so I don't know what it asks and what it doesn't ask.

Just go ahead and install. If you don't see a choice and you end up with some DE, install another one after installation is complete. You won't notice anything of installed DE which you don't use. Your system doesn't become slow. It might cost a few GB of disk space at most but not more.

jlinkels
 
Old 04-27-2015, 02:32 PM   #4
Captain Pinkeye
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Your old spare laptop is more powerful than my old-but-not-spare one (Core2Duo 1.6, 2GB RAM), which is running Debian 8 with KDE beautifully.
Your metal is good enough for any Debian.
 
Old 04-27-2015, 08:36 PM   #5
evo2
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Hi,
Quote:
Originally Posted by punchy71 View Post
I currently have the ability to install either version 7.6, 7.8 or 8.0 of Debian onto this machine. I was wondering which version is suitable to run on this laptop?
All are suitable to run on that laptop, but you should install 8.0.

Quote:
Originally Posted by punchy71 View Post
Also; I'm wanting to install either the Gnome 2 or MATE (or possibly even the Enlightenment) desktop environment and was wondering if that is an option at the time of install or is it handled some other way?
I just checked and it seems MATE is available as a task in tasksel, so should be choice at install time (provided you have the correct installation media or are doing a network install).
See "6.3.5.2. Selecting and Installing Software" at https://www.debian.org/releases/jess...stall-software

Enlightenment is available by installing the e17 package. Debian does not provide Gnome 2, but if you really, really, really, really want it, you may be able to get it from somewhere else (but will speak no further on the matter).

HTH,

Evo2.
 
Old 04-27-2015, 10:46 PM   #6
widget
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There are a number of install images on the Debian site. The default DVD will offer all DEs that are packaged for Debian (to get the packages Debian uses by default).

There are CDs also that come in those same flavors.

In either case there are a number of install disks labeled 1.2.3, etc. Assuming you have a decent internet connection disk 1 is all you need. The others are a snapshot of the Debian main repo so that you can install on a box at a remote location or one that will never be connected for what ever reason.

There are Live CDs available too.
http://www.debian.org/distrib/

If you are so lucky as to need non free firmware to boot there is an unofficial Live CD with them included. This is not supported by Debian due to Debian policy on non free packages but the images are created by the same people that create the official Debian Live CD.
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/un...ding-firmware/
 
  


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