Ubuntu Server - To GUI or not to GUI

Izi · 10 Aug 2011 at 20:51

That is the question!

Just getting stuck in to linux properly, need it for a small web server at work. Do you guys install the GUI or just use the cmd prompt?

Izi · 10 Aug 2011 at 22:16

JonJ678 said:
A gui on a server? What on earth for?

Thanks for the edits

Izi · 10 Aug 2011 at 22:17

tntcoder said:
But yer you don't want the GUI.

This is what I thought, I had seen it grown in popularity quite a bit

Izi · 10 Aug 2011 at 22:24

Which one of the following OSs would you suggest for a noob who simply wants to run a Git/Mercurial server?

Fedora 14
Arch 2010.05
CentOS 5.4
CentOS 5.5
CentOS 5.6
Debian 5.0 (lenny)
Debian 6.0 (Squeeze)
Fedora 13 (Goddard)
Fedora 15
Gentoo 10.1
Oracle EL JeOS Release 5 Update 3
Oracle EL Server Release 5 Update 4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (lucid)
Ubuntu 10.10 (maverick)
Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty)
Ubuntu 8.04.2 LTS (hardy)
Ubuntu 9.10 (karmic)

Izi · 11 Aug 2011 at 08:19

I am using rackspace cloud servers so I can rebuild the instance with any version I want. There is also daily snap shot backups, so not worrying too much about messing up.

I did install a VM of ubuntu before getting a live server to get a feel for the cmd line. Managed to get FTP/MySQL/Apache set up + firewall with out too many problems.

Most of you have mentioned CentOS or Debian, for a simple source control server will it really matter which one? Which one is the most stripped back, that is probably most ideal.

Thanks for helping a nub

Izi · 15 Aug 2011 at 11:04

3dcandy said:
I HAVE to install a gui on my server as it sometimes gets used by the wife and/or son and so needs to be able to do stuff on via gui. However, it's only a dually atom box under the tv so it's fine...however, if you were doing it "properly" a gui isn't needed...

yeah, I'm not using one.

The only reason I asked is because coming from a Windows background things are easier through GUI, I.E IIS 7 (inetmgr) vs command line and Apache2, imo.

Izi · 15 Aug 2011 at 17:04

BigglesPiP said:
Less stuff running means less resource usage and less stuff to crash.

My windows 2008 box has never crashed

What I would want from a linux server gui:

Memory / CPU visualisation / performance stuff
GUI config editors for things like apache2, ftp etc

Izi · 18 Aug 2011 at 16:31

BigglesPiP said:
Occasionally possible. But when was the last time you installed security updates *without* rebooting.

My debian server has 169 days uptime at present.

good point.

I am not saying one is better than the other, just GUIs are nicer to work with.

Izi · 18 Aug 2011 at 16:31

Speedy said:
If you're gonna use it as a 'real' server, then you don't need the GUI. It only eats resources which you could use for other purposes. Install SSHd, configure sshd.conf to disallow root logins (login as a regular user and then use sudo to become root), and if needed you could configure a firewall (like IPTABLES) to only allow SSH access from a batch of IP addresses, if security is a concern (or use certificates).

Useful tips, thanks.