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List:       debian-user
Subject:    Re: dell OptiPlex
From:       David Christensen <dpchrist () holgerdanske ! com>
Date:       2023-02-24 11:54:01
Message-ID: 7a0f39f9-5018-4fbb-490c-77f595558df1 () holgerdanske ! com
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On 2/24/23 00:06, Matthew Norris wrote:
> Hi everyone!
> Matt here. Years ago I had Debian on a disk with an awesome package and I
> told myself I was always going to start again. I have been out of
> circulation for some time. I have this Dell Optiplex with 32 RAM and an SSD
> with an Intel  i5-4590 CPU. Can I install and use Debian as my daily
> driver? If so, show me the way. I would like to put it on a stick first
> maybe. I appreciate your help.
> thanks,
> Matt


That should be more than enough computer for a Debian graphical desktop.
Which model Optiplex?  What type of SSD?  Size?


First, backup your data before you do anything.  The saying is "data 
does not exist unless it exists in three places".  The first place is 
the live data-- HDD/ SSD/ RAID, internal or external, NAS, file server, 
etc.  The second place is the current backups -- HDD, external or in 
another computer.  The third place is the previous backups -- HDD, 
external or in another computer; stored off-site.  Rotate the second and 
third copies periodically.  It is wise to also burn fourth copies to 
read-only media (e.g. CD/DVD/BD-R) periodically and archive them off-site.


Understand that the computer hobby is like the collector car hobby -- 
you need at least two: one to drive while you wrench on the others.  You 
should have a current and supported Windows instance available at all times.


If you have only one computer and it has Windows 10 or 11, I suggest 
leaving Windows as-is and running Debian in a virtual machine.  Once you 
figure out keyboard mappings and switch to full screen mode, it's 99% 
the experience of a hardware install.  And, because hypervisors provide 
a known virtual hardware platform, a FOSS should "just install" and 
"just work".  I ran a Debian graphical desktop as my daily driver on 
VirtualBox on macOS for a few years; it worked very nicely.


I tried dual-boot back in the day.  Then I installed mobile racks in my 
computers, bought several drives, and put each OS instance on its own 
drive.  For operations, I only insert one OS drive at a time into each 
computer.  (My data is on other drives.)


As for USB installation, I have been putting various Linux and FreeBSD 
distributions onto SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 16 GB flash drives for many 
years (~$10).  This works well as a boot and root drive for headless 
servers, firewall/ routers, etc..  It also works as a portable graphical 
sysadmin toolbox.  But it does not work well as a daily driver -- the 
experience becomes choppy whenever the OS is writing to the flash drive. 
  A low-power 2.5" SATA SSD and USB to SATA adapter cable is a much 
better experience (~$50).  If you have more money, there are faster 
external solutions.


Download a Debian installer image:

https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-11.6.0-amd64-netinst.iso


Burn the image to installation media:

- If the machine has a CD/DVD/BD-RW drive, an optical disc has 
advantages -- Windows machines with RW optical drives typically come 
with burning software, the checksum of the installation media should 
never change, there is less potential for confusing the target drive 
when installing Debian, and the target drive should be device node 
/dev/sda during installation and once Debian is installed and running. 
But, installation time is slower (especially on laptop slim drives).

- A USB flash drive has advantages -- compact size and faster 
installation.  But, USB flash drives are read-write (unless you have one 
with a write protect switch), so the running installer can change their 
contents, so the installation media checksum can change, so you cannot 
verify the installation media the next time you want to install.  And, 
the target drive can be device node /dev/sdb during installation and 
leave leftovers in crypttab(5) once Debian is installed and running.


Getting the ISO onto media can be a chicken-and-egg problem.  I started 
with purchased CD's.  Later, I downloaded ISO's and burned my own discs 
with Windows or Linux.  Now I burn USB flash drives with Debian or FreeBSD.


David

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