ServerGUI: where to discuss the shown "alternatives"?

[Dustin Kirkland]

On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 5:57 AM, Marc Luethi <netztier at bluewin.ch> wrote:
> I've been using the ServerGUI document as reference in a post in
> ubuntuforums.org, in a vague hope to tame down the ever resurgung
> discussions about "GUI on server? yes/no". I found your name to be the
> last editor of the document, hence I chose to contact you.

Hello-

> One of the wisdoms that is condensing out of the forum discussions is to
> suggest  to (especially novice) users to install Ubuntu Desktop and add
> the services (Apache, MySQL, Samba ...) manually, much the way they
> would have to on server as well. I believe that this alternative to a
> GUI install on the server is worth being mentionned (or linked to) in
> the ServerGUI document.

I strongly disagree with this approach for getting a GUI...

If you really must have a GUI, I suggest installing from the Server CD
first, which will get you a minimal installation, with the special
-server kernel.

Then, I would install a minimal desktop, without the "recommends"
packages, such as Open Office, Evolution, etc.  You can do this with:

  $ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop --no-install-recommends

For an even more minimal system, you could also try xubuntu-desktop.

You can then, as you say, install whatever services you'd like on top
of that system (Apache, MySQL, Virt-Server, etc).  Of course, note
that you are running the Ubuntu Desktop, plus some services, but you
are not running "The Ubuntu Server".

> Is there a place to discuss this? I think I could manage to just go
> ahead and edit the ServerGUI document, but I'd like to discuss that
> first to see and learn what other people had in mind when they were
> writing. There does not seem to be a ./PageDiscussion subpage for
> ServerGUI - where would I find people interested in/maintaining the
> ServerGUI page?

There are 3 places where I'd recommend discussing this:

 1) the #ubuntu-server IRC channel
 2) the ubuntu-server at lists.ubuntu.com mailing list (CC'd here)
 3) the weekly Ubuntu Server Team meeting in IRC
  * https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ServerTeam/Meeting

Cheers,
:-Dustin