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Home Web Server Setup

append delete 25 Dec 2012 20:43:47 Server Master

What I write below is based on vast experience...

I am not a programmer nor a code guru. I am a Power User who loves GUI and ease of use and hates terminal and command line. ;)

For home test/development server use Linux sucks!

Your home is not a corporate computer room where they mostly use specific tailored command line Linux distros...

If you want a home server go with Mac OS X or Windows.

Of course Mac OS X is based on Unix, and I believe that it is the best "Linux" distro out there by far...

For home use Server, don’t even bother with Linux. Too unstable, too unreliable, too unsupported…

For the casual user or home user, to try to setup a Web/Ftp Server with GUI (...not everybody is a programmer or a code guru...) in any other Linux distro than Mac OS X is a nightmare!

Yes. Linux core is stable. But any Linux OS isn't just the core...

Update something and your web server no longer works...

Install this or that and your server stops behaving as before...

Computers have struggled to get away from command line and bring ease of use to the masses with GUI and standalone applications, because that is evolution and that is what users demand. Casual users, Power users, even Administrators.

Web/FTP/Mail Servers should be standalone applications like it happens on Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows, allowing you to use your computer for everything. That's why you bought it anyway!

I have spend many days to try to find and test the ideal GUI setup for Web/FTP/Mail server for Linux, but in the end something always didn't work...

As many users out there, I love the idea of Linux but not its implementation, except Mac OS X.

And always remember:

“You pay Mac OS X and Windows with your money. You pay Linux with your time.”

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append delete 08 Feb 2013 08:31:00 #1. xj9

The most of the internet disagrees with you, bro. The terminal/command line still exist because they work.. if you understand them. I can do more in thirty seconds in the command line (assuming I know what I'm doing) than you can with your fancy GUI. I mean, it has its place (the GUI) but it isn't the server space. Linux works just fine as long as you follow your distros rules (otherwise you're on your own and will probably break things if you don't know what you're doing), I speak from my own "vast" experience running a home server on my computer running Ubuntu Desktop (which my family and I also used in regular desktop-type use cases) to build and test various applications built on combinations of the following technologies: (All running pretty much as the same time)

* CouchDB
* node.js
* Google App Engine SDK
* nginx
* Python (Twisted, Tornado, CGI, &c.)
* Scheme
* PHP5 (Various applications and frameworks)
* Ampache (PHP-based streaming music server)
* MPD (Another kind of streaming music server)
* iTunes-compatible music library sharing
* And so on.

Never had a single problem.

Also, Linux and Mac OS X have almost nothing in common. Saying so is like saying an Aston Martin and a Ferrari are the same thing because they're both based on the principle of internal combustion: being UNIX-based means its based on the philosophy of and specification of "UNIX" as "true UNIX" hasn't existed since the 70's and doesn't imply any kind of actual relationship. If we follow your reasoning Windows is just as equally Linux because it also implements UNIX (Where implementing or being based on UNIX means following the POSIX specification which is what defines what UNIX is and means... Windows follows that)

TL; DR: Linux is the ideal server setup for someone who knows what they're doing; anything else is for people who think they know what they're doing or newbies who don't know better.

append delete 08 Feb 2013 11:55:59 #2. Server Master

@xj9

Hi!

99% of internet users do not know command line and do not care to learn it because they like GUI. So how can the majority of the internet disagree with me?

The terminal/command line still exists because the closed society of Companies and Administrators do not want to let go of the profit the command line is giving them.

Companies and Administrators act hostile against GUI Servers because that means everybody can become an Administrator and manage his own Company/Home Server.

It’s no coincidence that no other company except Apple has released a fully capable GUI Server…

Concerning you Ubuntu Server setup, does everything still works after a new OS release update or after every sigle update?!

Linux is based on Unix. BSD is a Linux distro and the core of OS X. So how do you say that Linux and Mac OS X have nothing in common?

You said:

“Linux is the ideal server setup for someone who knows what they're doing”

How many Linux users on planet earth really know what to do (aka how many Linux users are skilled Administrators)?

The answer is less than 0,01% of all internet users... ;)

append delete 13 Feb 2013 02:09:27 #3. xj9

“Linux is based on Unix. BSD is a Linux distro and the core of OS X. So how do you say that Linux and Mac OS X have nothing in common?”

BSD and Linux are both Unix based but they aren't related beyond that.

" 99% of internet users do not know command line and do not care to learn it because they like GUI. So how can the majority of the internet disagree with me? "

I didn't say anything about internet users. I was talking about the platform the internet it built on: Linux. Without it the internet as we have it today wouldn't exist!

“The terminal/command line still exists because the closed society of Companies and Administrators do not want to let go of the profit the command line is giving them.”

The thing about Linux is that it isn't controlled by business interests, the command line is still in use because the people who know whats up with computers realize how powerful it is, sure, it isn't user-friendly but that isn't the final goal of all software: some things just need to work and having a GUI to manage them is just overkill. Also, there is nothing keeping you from having your own home server: only you make the command line a limiting factor.

append delete 13 Feb 2013 16:00:04 #4. Server Master

@xj9

BSD and Linux are Unix derivatives and as that related...

You said:

“The most of the internet disagrees with you, bro.”

So you are talking about internet users and not Linux users...

I talked about command line and not Linux. Command line can be found in Windows OS's too.

The command line still exists so that Administrators and Companies can make money out of the ignorance they impose to users by not constructing fully featured GUI Server Software.

Please give me a link to one fully featured Drag 'n Drop GUI Server except Apple's.

Zentyal (http://www.zentyal.org) tries to be that but it's far from the "Simple Installation" concept...

Simplicity is power.

Command line is not simple or anthropocentric.

Server Master added on 13 Feb 2013 16:00:37

Command line is a limiting factor by origin...

append delete 13 Feb 2013 17:22:13 #5. xj9

“Simplicity is power.”

Do you know how complicated it is to build a user interface? To build an iOS app, for example, I have to download several gigabytes of libraries and resources to be able to make your "simple" drag and drop interface possible. Even for something you see as simple like a website, even one as simple as this:

% html
<!doctype html>
<html>
    <head>
        <title>A Simple Page That Does Nothing</title>
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css" />
    </head>
    <body>
        <h1>My Title</h1>
        <p>My content that has no interaction and stuff and stuff.</p>
    </body>
</html>
%

Requires quite a bit of non-user-friendly html to make possible plus a ton of code that you don't understand (most of which I, a programmer, don't understand).

“So you are talking about internet users and not Linux users...”

I'm talking about the platform of the internet that makes your home server (or any server for that matter) even usable. Sorry, I may not have expressed myself properly. The internet is built on Linux, Linux with no GUI because with most server setups a GUI is just a waste of resources when you have several million requests per second pounding on your front end balancing proxy and several million more requests per second and a result trying to take your database down.

From your point of view I can understand the complaint against the command line because you want to set up your server and go, you want it to be easy to understand to tinker with, but that doesn't make sense in a professional standpoint where ease of use (from an administrative point of view) takes a back seat to performance and getting as much out of your machines as possible.

03 Mar 2013 21:40:08 #6. Server Master

This post was deleted by its owner

append delete 03 Mar 2013 22:30:34 #7. Server Master

@xj9

“Do you know how complicated it is to build a user interface? To build an iOS app, for example, I have to download several gigabytes of libraries and resources to be able to make your "simple" drag and drop interface possible.”

You are missing the point. Users do not care how complicated it is.

They want it. Period.

Administrators too.

The Administrator doesn't have to be a Programmer too.

And as companies grow bigger, they will want Skilled Administrators with perception and not necessarily Command Line junkies.

As for Linux Servers and servers in general, with so much processing power in them these days, GUI is easily served...

Thus I insist that the command line still exists so that Administrators and Companies can make money out of the ignorance they impose to users by not constructing fully featured GUI Server Software.

Home Web Server Setup

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