Roadmap for UbuntuServer

[Joao Inacio]

On 2/20/06, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> In other words, it's left up to the user - the admin building the
> server - to actually install and configure the machine.
>
and this should be the default, as many people have different ideas
and purposes for what  their server should be.

> Is there any intention to provide a more complete solution, something
> comparable to Ubuntu itself, which on installation provides a complete
> working graphical desktop with a preselected preinstalled selection of
> the best productivity apps and so on?
>
> In other words, something more comparable to established offerings such as:
>
> SME Server  - http://contribs.org/ (free but dated, monolithic and
> hard to customise)
>
> or
>
> ClarkConnect - http://www.clarkconnect.com/ (commercial, only a
> limited version offered for free)
>
> These pre-install and pre-configure a base set of components (email
> server, file server, print server etc.) and provide simple web-based
> management interfaces, so that it's possible to get something up and
> running without prior Linux experience or knowledge.

again, i don't think there is "a selection" of packages that is aimed
at a server.
i do think, however, that there are a few uses that gather common services...
something like:
 - webserver (apache, mysql, ftp, email)
 - router/gateway: firewall
 - file/print server (samba)

still, selecting default packages for these services isn't (by far) as
easy as selecting packages for a general desktop.

> I have some ideas and plans about how to build something more capable,
> which I have been wanting to do for some time now, and I am an
> experienced technical writer able to write good documentation, but
> unfortunately I lack the deep Linux skills to customise a
> distribution.

IMHO i think one way to do this the easy way is by using meta-packages.

again, i am no expert in either ubuntu or servers but most of all i
think that a standard server install should be "clean", but there
should be an easy way to install the most commmon services.

--
João Inácio
jcinacio at gmail.com