From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 5 14:14:20 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 569E71065678 for ; Mon, 5 Sep 2011 14:14:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F423C8FC16 for ; Mon, 5 Sep 2011 14:14:19 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-14-151.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.14.151]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7A0381E6FA; Mon, 5 Sep 2011 16:14:18 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id p85EEHsw002215; Mon, 5 Sep 2011 16:14:17 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2011 16:14:17 +0200 From: Polytropon To: Pierre-Luc Drouin Message-Id: <20110905161417.44aabcdc.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <4E64D5BB.4030509@pldrouin.net> References: <4E644637.1030500@pldrouin.net> <20110905143102.68a797fa.freebsd@edvax.de> <4E64CC1D.90001@pldrouin.net> <20110905154358.187c9fba.freebsd@edvax.de> <4E64D5BB.4030509@pldrouin.net> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Best Server OS for Someone That Does not Want to Touch a Shell on a Regular Basis? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:14:20 -0000 On Mon, 05 Sep 2011 09:59:23 -0400, Pierre-Luc Drouin wrote: > I just took a look at PBDir and the choice of PBIs for server-related > softwares seems to be rather limited. Okay, that's understandable, as servers are not their main target. In fact, what do you need a GUI for on a server? - This is a typical question in such a setting, even though it is _possible_ to run a desktop with server functionality. > They have a PBI for Apache, but I > could not even find one for PHP... To me it seems that if not all the > required softwares are available through PBI, it would be better to drop > the whole PBI idea all together and fall back to the FreeBSD > port/package system. Yes, I would agree with that. PBIs are primarily used to distribute desktop-oriented software in a fashion that a web browser is involved in obtaining them (instead of using comfortable tools like pkg_add or portmaster). > But to go with the FreeBSD route, I will need to > convince my friend of using the command line at least to update the > packages and the OS. That's not a problem! You can easily write a short script that performs the required steps. Really, what's so hard about entering "portmaster -a"? I know it's a bit more complicated to update the system (i. e. following the 11 steps in /usr/src/Makefile), but it's also possible to make a Tcl/Tk GUI wrapper for that. In fact, it's even possible to make a desktop icon for a shell script that performs the required steps. Oh, and just in case you do not intend to update from source, why not use freebsd-update? It's _very_ easy to use, and it can also be included in a GUI wrapper. That would be the way I'd suggest: Install desired packages first with portmaster, keep the system up to date using both portmaster (for ports) and freebsd-update for the OS. (Of course you can choose a different port management tool if you like.) > I am not sure if he will enjoy the usage of tools > such as mergemaster, given that this requires to have a good idea of > what is going on in the config files. The person who runs and administers a server is supposed to know what's going on on the system he is responsible for. You may call me old-fashioned for having such an opinion. :-) But as I mentioned above, you can omit mergemaster use if you keep using the -RELEASE-pX OS branch and use the binary method of freebsd-update. It's as simple as "pkg_add -r". > This might make an OS like Ubuntu > easier to use for my friend, although this is probably not the most > stable and secure OS for a server. There _are_ Linux distributions that provide a lot of GUI even for their server systems. I'm not sure which one it was... Red Hat maybe? Or SuSE? Their server and PC systems are designed to be "compatible" (in terms of GUI presented to the user and the administrator). Regarding Ubuntu, it's a quite nice desktop Linux, but I'm not sure how well it does _perform_ (see: performance) on a server. Maybe you can do some research on Linux server operating systems that emphasize an administration GUI? As I said, I think SuSE or Red Hat has something like that. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...