More discussion: GUI, blogs, and pizza

[Aaron Kincer]

It seems to me to ask "Will enterprise users go for xxx" is a bit too much
of a generalization. I think it all depends on how good the interface is and
what problems it solves. After all, there are quite a few enterprise class
products that do have web interfaces for management.

In a perfect world, there would be a single web interface I could go to in
order to manage all of my Ubuntu servers. In an even more perfect world, I
could manage other Linux servers as well. In an absolute perfect world, I
could manage virtually any OS from the interface. But one step at a time . .
.

I suppose there are pros and cons whichever way is chosen. Although I really
like the idea of a CLI (wouldn't that make it scriptable?) and overlay GUIs
on top of that. If you have an underlying CLI that is scriptable, then you
can write any number of GUIs to sit on top--web based or whatever GUI
toolkit you fancy.

If I'm missing something or am off base, please set me straight.


On Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 9:39 AM, Luke <lukehasnoname at gmail.com> wrote:

> Just a few thoughts with respect to what we spoke about at the meeting.
>
> GUI for administration: There is still the webmin vs. eBox question. I
> honestly haven't used eBox, and it's been a while since I tampered with
> webmin (I don't have internet at home for my server...) but the opints made
> were:
> --Webmin can break config files, and is more low level
> --eBox is higher level, and has its own configuration files... I forget the
> problem with it.
>
> Some have suggested taking eBox and making a fully customized Ubuntu
> version. I'm not into actual development now, so I don't know what kind of
> effort this would be. Judging by the screenshots of eBox, this could be a
> way to go.
>
> Also, another topic on the mailing list suggests writing a terminal program
> that would be an all-in-one management are for server services, I believe
> it's tentatively called "u-s-admin". The idea is write that for CLI users,
> then develop a GUI frontend for it. Something else to think about.
>
> Timeframe: 9.04 seems reasonable. This is almost a year to get a reasonable
> beta product out, whether we're making our own or modifying webmin/eBox.
> Intrepid is too close, as people are working on the first "point" for Hardy
> as well, and there are only 5 months til release.
>
> One question I have: Is a web interface really the way to go? Will
> enterprise users go for having to have a web server to run admin services?
> In my personal view, it would be more reasonable to develop a program for
> Ubuntu that could have a GUI front made for it. An actual program is more
> pro than a web interface.
>
> As far as the blog goes, a direction that might get more users (and actual
> system administrators) interested is by writing it like you're writing a
> magazine article. Think "Full Circle" for sysadmins. Make the dicussion
> high-level, talk about new software, developments on new features, post
> useful how-tos, and bring up recurring topics (Which VM is right for me?
> *soren*).
>
> This would be a lot of work, I imagine. Start off small, and try to get the
> whole server team together on contributing in small ways, such as mailing
> the editor-in-chief links to discussions like those suggested above. Again,
> this is just an idea from me.
>
> I forgot how pizza tied into this; I think Mathias was going to bring some
> to the next server meeting. Finally, a personal question: did the time get
> moved to Tuesdays at 15:00 UTC, or are we still on for Wednesdays?
>
> Try to input on everything you feel you can contribute to (suggestions,
> help, etc.) Thanks.
>
> --
> ubuntu-server mailing list
> ubuntu-server at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-server
> More info: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-server/attachments/20080605/69285b9c/attachment.html>