Re: Linspire?

On Sat, 2007-03-10 at 07:39 +0000, Christopher Hunter wrote:


Agreed. However, a GUI is usually superfluous for a server.

Windows is spectacularly bad at being a server - partially because any
administration relies on their flaky desktop applications, and partially
because MS still don't understand the concepts of "security",
"availability" and even "servers"!

MS IIS is a bad joke, which is why nobody of real significance actually runs
it. Apache rules the roost when it comes to web serving. MS SQL Server is
a not entirely bad product (MS bought it in - they didn't write it
in-house), but it's still beaten hands down by Postgres and MySQL.

Windows (as an "operating system") isn't suitable for use in servers for the
myriad reasons that you can find out for yourself. Windows is just a poor
quality proprietary client for a Unix world.

Very true, but I think the fundamental point that most here have been
trying to get across is that running a server is a matter of simple
system resource economics and ergonomics - if you make a trade-off in
system resources or a (small) trade-off in security due to the unknown
possibility of exploitable security holes in your GUIs, you have to
weigh off the gains you will make from it.

For some, the benefits outweigh the costs made, in most cases due to
less time for maintenance purposes and less need for a dedicated, highly
qualified admin. Maybe someone like AOL or Novell might need and be able
to afford a $50,000 a year network admin who can run a Slack server with
his or her eyes closed armed with little more than vim, but your average
small business cannot afford someone with those kinds of skills. It's a
simple reality of the business world, you pay for what you need, and you
get what you pay for. If you want someone who can run a Linux server on
the bare minimum of system resources, then you'll need to pay a premium
for it.

Luckily, in the Linux world, you can divorce the GUI desktop from the server
- you can either run it on a separate machine or in a virtual machine on
the same box as the server. This is a more secure way of dealing with your
server.

You /can,/ but it's probably /not/ a good commercial decision! Similarly,
it's not good business to force an unwanted GUI onto people like MS do!

Spot on. In fact, under Linux, you can divorce everything from
everything if need be. Windows, on the other hand, as you say, forces
everything onto you and it is a practical nightmare trying to manage it.
Linux is about choice - if you want a GUI to run a simple file server,
you got it. If you want to administer your server from an Apache-based
web interface, you got it. If you're content to run everything from the
command line because you need to squeeze every last drop from your aging
server, and you have the know-how and time to do it like this, great!

MS on the other forces the GUI upon you, and even encourages server
admins to run as an admin user permanently, and it is amazing how many
admins I see doing this. It's a stupid practice, and it's wrong to force
the GUI on people like this, but it's just as wrong to sit there (yes,
Dan C, I'm talking to you) and claim that anyone using a GUI is a bad
admin in any way. Trying to force people by means of insults and
degradation to not use a GUI is just as bad, if not more so, as MS.

-- D


--
Darryl LeCount
www.jamyskis.net
darryl@xxxxxxxxxxxx

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: [SLE] ...and speaking of SuSE / Novell...
    ... > Then why offend experienced admins that use a GUI to admin a machine? ... Experienced admins should know how to ssh into the server and run the ... GUI tool using the X-server of their desktop. ... If you do not have a desktop system running an X-Server, ...
    (SuSE)
  • Re: [SLE] ...and speaking of SuSE / Novell...
    ... > I have seen a number of newbies that start out with installing a GUI ... > on a server, until I show them that it is not really needed. ... > That was until I actually saw a real live UNIX machine and worked on ... Then why offend experienced admins that use a GUI to admin a machine? ...
    (SuSE)
  • Re: Possible bug in Exchange GUI (Exchange System Manager.msc)
    ... Connection settings for SMTP server. ... Script that I used for changing settings and reading them ... And GUI ...
    (microsoft.public.exchange.admin)
  • Re: Fedora Desktop future- RedHat moves
    ... in marketing and they still manage only 30% of the server market. ... I don't as yet know what Ubuntu's niche is - windows malcontents? ... servers due to the desktop support as well as gui management tools. ... Part of the issue in the past has been many admins that new Unix found ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: Java in umfangreicheren Projekten
    ... > Kopplung durch die bisherige Vorgehensweise verursache. ... Die GUI kennt den Server, ... > als ServerStatusListener am Server und wird entsprechend informiert, ...
    (de.comp.lang.java)