On 05/04/2016 03:39 PM, van Sleeuwen, Berry wrote:
> What software do you want to install? Is a GUI really required for
> installing it? Most installation manuals are written for MS Windows
> or PC based Linux. So they tend to write mostly with (x) windows in
> mind. That includes the system requirements as well :-(. Somewhere in
> a hidden corner they also might mention a Command Line install and/or
> silent install. Even MS-windows based software nowadays can be
> installed trough scripting, often without actually needing a
> full-blown windows. I have to admit, it was quite a challenge to
> convince our Oracle group that Oracle can be installed on the command
> line.
>
> I did install a x-windows machine some time ago. It was fun to see
> the machine with x-windows but also confirmed the high resource
> consumption that goes with a GUI based system. For server systems I
> would say you don't need or want windows. There is no point in
> running a GUI on a server that you don't login to often (at least, I
> hope you don't need to login that often). MS has discovered this only
> a couple of years ago.
In the world of "UNIX graybeards" it has always been conventional
wisdom that servers don't run a GUI. A lot of people do it, but that
doesn't make it the right thing to do, for exactly the reasons you cite
above, and more. (security, for example)
Note well that, as several people have pointed out in this thread, not
running a GUI on a server does not preclude the use of GUI-based
installers, if one is actually required (as you mention above) in the
first place. For decades the UNIX world has enjoyed the benefits of
network-based windowing systems...No "remote desktop", no "copying"
screen contents across the network, or other such foolishness...but
native "open this window OVER THERE" behaviors that do not require
graphics hardware (and its attendant hundreds of thousands of lines of
code) on the system on which the GUIfied program is executed.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA
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