On 26 September 2011 22:34, Dave Morley <[email protected]> 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<[email protected]> 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. -- Liam Proven • Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: [email protected] • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: [email protected] Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven • MSN: [email protected] • ICQ: 73187508 -- [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
