[olug] to X or not to X (on a server)?

[Kenton Brede]

On Fri, May 09, 2003 at 06:05:37AM -0500, Brian Wiese wrote:
> So, my friend and I where having this little discussion about setting up a
> debian stable server for basically samba file and print serving.  He says
> X should not ever be installed and I say it should.  What do the fellow
> gnu/linux admins on the list recommend from experience... which has more
> benefit, to install X on a server or to not?  hard drive space is not a
> concern.
> 
> reasons for X:
> - provides productive usable environment for local system administration
> (I like to have a couple of terminal windows open and other GUI tools at
> hand (a webbrowser perhaps) when administrating a system versus straight
> CLI)- will not be used/running normally, standard runlevel = 2
> - could easily be uninstalled with 'apt-get remove --purge xserver-common
> ...'- security updates go along with 'apt-get upgrade' so not much of a
> concern (and there are no remote shell logins, just IT staff)
> 
> reasons against X:
> - another piece of software installed that could be a security
> vulnerability- added difficulty for system backups?
> - performance benefit by not being installed?
> 
> so, to have the option of X or to not on a server, what's best?

I can't say absolutely X should never be installed on a server but I haven't 
seen a reason to do so yet.  A few reasons why I wouldn't:

* Possible security vulnerability that must be dealt with.

* Don't have to track and install security updates for X and all the
  stuff installed with it.

* During your career you will more than likely find yourself in an 
  environment mostly without a graphical interface.  Relying on X doesn't 
  prepare you for that. 

* Most of the crashes / freezes I have personally seen on linux systems 
  have happened while running X. 

* Running a graphical browser on a server isn't a good idea due to
  the inevitable runaway processes that occur while surfing.  
 
kent

-- 
"I am always doing that which I can not do, 
   in order that I may learn how to do it." --Pablo Picasso