r/debian • u/lainwindforeskin2007 • 9h ago
General Debian Question first time installing
i wanna install debian on my 2011 computer and make programs on it for fun
i wanna install it on a computer with an intel pentium e6500, 6gb of ram and an intel g41 express chipset igpu. i'm planning on installing the latest version of debian, with xfce and openbox
more specifically i wanna dual boot, windows 7 on the dying C drive (500 gb) and debian on the D drive (160 gb)
is there anything i should be doing differently or is this fine?
any specific tutorials i should read/watch before trying?
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u/kydeshou 8h ago edited 8h ago
Assuming no other hardware quirks, Debian with XFCE should work fine ootb. The Intel is still supported in kernel, xfce runs just fine on 4-6gb ram. Is there a reason you want to keep Win7 at all?
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u/lainwindforeskin2007 8h ago
keeping windows 7 because it's the computer i grew up with, don't plan on using it for anything important but i would feel bad replacing it lol
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u/David_Connors3451 8h ago
Since you have 6 GB RAM, and old hardware in general, just use XFCE desktop. It's very lightweight and comfortable. Before using the USB drive ISO DVD, turn off secure boot from bios, better this way. Your pc is old, so your bios will be way much simpler than modern ones. Since you already have a partition ready, you'll have to carefully choose that partition for installing Debian in D drive.
If you already did the manual partition on windows 7, then dual boot will be easier to manage.