[ubuntu-uk] Home/Small Business Server

[Liam Proven]

On 26 September 2011 22:34, Dave Morley <davmor2 at davmor2.co.uk> wrote:
> On 26/09/11 22:18, Bruno Girin wrote:
>>
>> On 26/09/11 21:35, Matthew Daubney wrote:
>>>
>>> On 26 September 2011 21:17, Alan Pope<alan at popey.com>  wrote:
>>> <snip>
>>>
>>>> Ahh, SoHo server... a perennial "want" of many (including myself).
>>>
>>> I'm getting so annoyed by this being missing it's starting to become an
>>> itch :(
>>>
>>>> I'll refer you to this spec:-
>>>>
>>>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuEasyBusinessServer
>>>
>>> Ah, lovely. I agreed with it largely until this....
>>> "The interface will be web based"
>>> And then I wanted to curl up in the foetal position and cry.
>>>
>>> BEWARE RANT AHOY!
>>>
>>> <rant>
>>> Why do people always want these things web based? I'd much rather
>>> prefer something that works simply in a nice easy gui that I could
>>> VNC/whatever into. In order to make things like this web based, you
>>> either have to lose some flexibility and/or can make it really hard to
>>> report back to the user what actually is going on. I've never really
>>> found a web based configuration gui I liked (and I write them for
>>> work).
>>
>> Well the main benefit of a web based UI is that you don't need all the
>> desktop GUI libraries on the server, which means that the server stays a
>> server and can be a fairly lean machine that doesn't burn CPU to paint a
>> desktop (important for a small office where running a powerful server 24x7
>> can be prohibitively expensive and/or noisy). And considering the size and
>> complexity of GUI code these days, adding a GUI to a server is likely to
>> increase the potential for bug several folds.
>>
>> I hear what you say about web front-ends but balancing the pros and cons,
>> I would still go for a web front-end, mainly to keep the server lightweight.
>> This doesn't preclude a standard GUI front-end on client machines though.
>>
>> Bruno
>>
>>
> Daft suggest possibly.
>
> How about a simple ncursor based cli interface.  Light enough for ssh
> forwarding gui enough for a novice user to click on buttons.  I know it's
> not as pretty as some *cough* light *cough* desktops but should suffice.

A very simple one would be a good thing, yes - enough to:

* display a status monitor screen - including the server's IP address,
so you can find it from a client!
* shut the box down or restart it
* see who's logged on and what files are open
* (possibly) apply updates - basically, 'apt-get update && apt-get
dist-upgrade -y'
* schedule an fsck next boot
* kick off a backup to an attached device

Some basic admin tasks like that.

Maybe a text-mode web browser, such as Links, to access the main Web
interface in an emergency.


-- 
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