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
Ubuntu Server - To GUI or not to GUI
- Thread starter Izi
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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
Sometimes the GUI has stupid applications like the gnome-network-manager.
The settings can be done in a text file and is more predictable at boot time.
Soldato
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My windows 2008 box has never crashed
Occasionally possible. But when was the last time you installed security updates *without* rebooting.
My debian server has 169 days uptime at present.
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).
good point.
I am not saying one is better than the other, just GUIs are nicer to work with.
Useful tips, thanks.
Soldato
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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
Performance stuff .... on the server you probably wouldn't be monitoring it graphically as that would add overhead affecting the results. Better to collect the raw data and then dump it out and manipulate it with another tool elsewhere.
GUI config editors tend to suck unless you are doing anything other than really basic things, which you might as well do via vi anyway. The only exceptions to this I would say personally are the RHEL6 GUIs for setting up LDAP authentication with certs and kerberos with SSSD and getting a slightly more complex basic firewall setup in (as the GUI tool adds the connection tracking modules in properly so you don't have to remember the ones you need for the various services ... but as soon as you need to add some rules which are source or destination specific it's manual edit time).
sshd_config normally on most distributions I use at least.
It should be noted that some applications do have dependencies for having GUI libraries installed on the server ... but it still doesn't mean that you need to run an actual GUI on the server, just the files need to be installed.
Another reason for not using a GUI is that normally the server is not sitting near you, so either you SSH in which takes about 1 second and can be done via Putty, or you can **** about with X for ages getting the GUI on your desktop.
Hence SSH normally wins.
Hence SSH normally wins.
Soldato
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You could always install the GUI, then set the default runlevel to 3. Just telinit 5 whenever you want to do some maintenance/changes.
personally i prefer using the command line to a gui
its much quicker most of the time too.
plus if your controlling your server remotly then a command line uses considerably less bandwidth and dont have to worry about mouse lag
You have to ask, ergo you need the GUI, simple as that
In your shoes, I'd probably setup an XServer instance running XCFE or something similarly lightweight connected to x11vnc running off the dummy driver. This gives you a working GUI you can VNC into easily enough. The flip side of this is that it doesn't work through a local monitor, but using the 'real' driver will cause problems if you boot the box headless.
-Leezer-
In your shoes, I'd probably setup an XServer instance running XCFE or something similarly lightweight connected to x11vnc running off the dummy driver. This gives you a working GUI you can VNC into easily enough. The flip side of this is that it doesn't work through a local monitor, but using the 'real' driver will cause problems if you boot the box headless.
-Leezer-
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