server w/ 'optional' desktop

[Attila Horvath]

Hi All

Being (relatively)  new to LINUX &  UBUNTU, so far  EVERYONE been very
helpful w/ my questions to help me get up and running. Thank you! :-)

After  playing   around  with  desktop   version,  I  have   a  better
understanding of what I want/need.

I'd like to learn the 'server'  environment because I'd like to set up
a  standalone  system  as  a  personal  web  and  mail  server  -  for
starters. That said,  I probably need to install  the 'server' version
of UNBUNTU.

I  did that  once and  only  afterwards I  found out  that the  server
install does  not include Gnome  and other related utilities.  I could
partition my HD and install both  but that would require wasting a lot
of disk  space. I  only have  a 20G HD  on my  target host!  <8-( [The
machine's 6 years old - at the time it was 'ahead' of it's time!]

Question  - if  I install  the server  version which  only  [seems] to
provide  command   line  interface,  is  there  any   reason  I  can't
retroactively install GNOME and other desktop related utilities that I
can invoke optionally?

I'm  'ok'  w/  the  desktop  for  certain  things.  But  my  immediate
need/desire    is,    as    I    said,    to    learn    the    server
environment.  Occasionally,  I  also  want an  SDK  environment  which
requires 'build-essential' which gives me GCC, make, etc.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Thx, Attila

PS: I  considered a  windows-based Linux (eg.  CoLinux) but  I already
have Cygwin which  is 'sufficient' for most quick  unix-like tasks but
still doesn't offer the "real" thing!

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