Ubuntu Server graphical interface?

[Paul Elliott]

Hi Ante,

Ante Karamatic wrote:
> On Fri, 2 May 2008 14:23:31 -0500
> "Dustin Kirkland" <kirkland at canonical.com> wrote:
> What's the purpose of fluxbox, openbox, xfce, enlightenment (etc...) on
> server? It's not like you have some point and click application for
> setting up apache virtual website or psotfix transport tables.

We find increasingly a large number of applications are *requiring* a 
full X environment to run the setup procedure. It's not something I 
agree with, I strongly believe a CLI installer should always be present 
for any software that might end up on a server. Unfortunately it's also 
something outside of our control.

> Even GNOME and KDE don't have flexible applications for server
> management. Still, if someone really wants (for some strange reason) X
> window system on server, I see more reasons to install full GNOME or
> KDE, than some X window manager just for xterm.

I would suggest the opposite. If a GUI is required on a server then it's 
best to install the smallest possible environment to save resources and 
crucially, to limit the attack vector. On average, less code = less 
chance of a security hole. Coverity[1] research shows that a range of 
Open Source software contained 0.434 bugs per 1000 lines of code. The 
more code, the more bugs. We're only human after all. :-)

[1] http://www.internetnews.com/stats/article.php/3589361

-- 
Paul Elliott
UNIX Systems Administrator and Programmer
Computing Service, University of York