On 10/23/06, Ivan Krstić <<a href="mailto:krstic@solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu">krstic@solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu</a>> wrote:<div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Carlos Ribeiro wrote: > before implementing a GUI tool, we should talk about whether > to have X installed on a server or not. This isn't much of a discussion topic; we absolutely won't enable X by default in Ubuntu Server. </blockquote><div> Agreed :-) I was trying to say that it doesn't make much sense to talk about a GTK based GUI for a server that does not have X libraries installed - unless one is willing to write his own client-server protocol to make it work (which is not a good idea IMHO). </div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">That said, Adam and I tossed around the idea of a "small business server"-type edition that would install X, and a semi-decent GUI for configuring the server and daemons. The problem is, no such GUI exists; what's out there now is just egregious. Getting server GUI configuration right is a hard problem. I'd be happy to see a group of people come together to spec this out in detail, and then get something implemented. The server team can review specs and answer any questions, and for those looking to get involved in development, this would be a great project that would -- if done right -- almost certainly get adopted in other distributions. There's a need for this tool. </blockquote></div> I've read the comments about webmin and I agree. Most of these tools are way too generic. What is needed, IMHO, is something that does the basic stuff, and does it in a very simple way. If it works for the basic LAMP, it's already a good enough start (as it can always be improved & extended later). For a first shot, I think a Web interface is the way to go - no need for X, and the limitations of the Web interface are a bonus as they force the designer to keep the UI simple. Going to the GUI route implies that either X libraries have to be installed (which may be a good idea or not), or that the application implement some "protocol" of its own (even if only to copy config files from & to the server during the configuration session). Also, a simple Web interface will work over a regular SSH connection using elinks or lynx (which support curses). It's not pretty, but it works. And elinks supports HTTPS also, which is a plus. -- Carlos Ribeiro Consultoria em Projetos blog: <a href="http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com">http://rascunhosrotos.blogspot.com</a> blog: <a href="http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com">http://pythonnotes.blogspot.com</a> mail: <a href="mailto:carribeiro@gmail.com"> carribeiro@gmail.com</a> mail: <a href="mailto:carribeiro@yahoo.com">carribeiro@yahoo.com</a>