-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi all,
I think this is my first post on this list so I make a little introduction of myself: I'm a SysAdmin for more than 10 years. Worked in different networks with all sorts of OSs ( SunOS, Irix, FreeBSD, NetbSD, OpenBSD, Linux (most popular Distros), Windows, Mac OS X) for server and desktop use. I do some Ubuntu work in the local German usergroup ubuntu-berlin. (It is an open user group for Ubuntu users in the Berlin area.) I really like to use the console to setup servers and desktop systems alike. So naturally I disagree with some parts in this thread ;-). But sometimes I use some GUIs for various SysAdmin task, too. Like phpldapadmin for some parts of LDAP administration, or SWAT for Samba Administration. But most of the time I use the console with vi, sed, awk and so on. Even to setup and maintain a /etc/ldap/slapd.conf files :-). This is secure, easy! and very very fast, if you know what you do. And I think it is not really hard to learn, if you really want to. But that's just my opinion... In the past month I have seen a lot of mail threads in various Ubuntu related mailinglists, where people ask why Ubuntu/Linux does not provide an easy way of doing things like Windows does. All the time I ask myself why should Linux and Ubuntu go the same way Microsoft does? And why does everybody thinks administration with Windows is easy? It is not! And I even think why do someone use Linux if he/she wants it to work the same way Windows does? Not that I do not think Ubuntu should invent new ways. But why has it to be a way someone already goes? And why a way that is not a good way... By the way ( ;-) ): someone who things administering a Windows Server is easy because you have a click and point interface, never setup a Windows Server for production use! It is not. Without the knowledge what you are doing, you are lost! And things will not work the way you expect it! This is one of the biggest marketing lie around. I have seen a lot of small companies where the network was broken, because everybody things system administration is so easy with Windows... For setting up servers and network in a secure and reliable way it is not the most important thing to have an easy to use interface. Most important is knowledge! Doing some conceptual work before deployment and knowing the pros and cons of your configuration are also important. Even if you use a nice "click here" and "click there" interface. That is also true for the mentioned Windows Vista (and Win XP; it also provides an "easy setup your network" mode) easy network setup mode. Note: I like the idea of having some easy way of integrating Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop boxes. It would be cool to setup an Ubuntu server with various features and the Ubuntu boxes get all these features "automagically". But this is not easily done! > > What's needed are people who understand the under the hood part of servers > well enough to write such a thing and also care enough about the GUI > experience to do it. Ubuntu Server is a young project and is headed toward > being able to support such things, but it won't happen overnight. > > What we lack isn't ideas or understanding of the need, but people to do the > actual work to provide it. > > Ok. Does the server team has a use for a console admin who sometimes uses the already available GUIs and who likes to disagree a lot with all this "server administration has to be easy" stuff? ;-) Than I am willing to help, if I can find the time. I am really good at setting up things and testing. Another thing somebody in this thread mentioned: There are already a lot of good SysAdmin GUIs for various administration tasks and most of them are already available as an Ubuntu package. Ok all these applications do not have a common "look & feel" but these tools work most of the time. Why not bundle it in a metapackage (ubuntu-server-gui-admin-stuff-metapackage ;-) ) for example? To mention some tools: - - SWAT - - phpLDAPAdmin - - luma (for LDAP administration) - - gbindadmin - GTK+ configuration tool for bind9 - - gdhcpd - GTK+ configuration tool for dhcpd3-server and a lot of other tools I do not know by heart. And now I know rapache ;-). I will take a look into this program immediately. I think with such tools installed it should be possible to setup a "home server" with GUIs. Not by everyone but interested people should have a start. You only have to know the names of all these programs. Regards, Michael -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFIkshaBvfZ5167qr8RAm/YAJ4jPXVf0pymptWhCN+RLi/iqex3YACfZHaU SOdtS/+Azj6YLx9tAoMVBMg= =gWqd -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
