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From: John Hasler on 19 Mar 2010 13:55
artificer wrote:
> I first considered ubuntu LTS Server but I realized that it have no UI (
> I mean by default). And as far as I know it don't have good UI for
> admins. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I assume that by "UI" you mean GUI as claiming that Ubuntu has no user
interface is ridiculous. And yes, there are GUI admin packages in the
Ubuntu archives that would do what you want but it would require several
mouse clicks to install them.
--
John Hasler
jhasler(a)newsguy.com
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA
From: General Schvantzkoph on 19 Mar 2010 14:42
On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:49:01 -0700, artificer wrote:

> I have good experience on windows server administration but only general
> unix/linux knowledge. I am looking a distro to be use as a server for
> file and printing, domain controller (SAMBA) and proxy server for 25
> windows client computers.
>
> I know that all linux distros are capable of doing that but I am looking
> for a distro with a UI that will be more comfortable to a windows
> administrator. Also I am looking for a distro that have a long support
> time.
> I first considered ubuntu LTS Server but I realized that it have no UI (
> I mean by default). And as far as I know it don't have good UI for
> admins. Please correct me if I am wrong.
>
> Them I considered openSUSE because of the YAST control panel but it have
> a life cicle of 8 months so I am afraid that I will end up having to
> reinstall or upgrade every year
>
> Can anybody please give recommendations on this case?

There is a terrific administration tool called Webmin which works for all
of the common Linux distros. Webmin is browser based so you can do your
administration from any machine on your network with a browser.

http://www.webmin.com/

As for your choice of distro, I'd use CentOS 5.4. CentOS is an exact
clone of Redhat Enterprise Linux. RHEL is rock solid and it has the
longest support period of any distro.

http://www.centos.org/

From: Stan Bischof on 19 Mar 2010 15:06
artificer <eliezerfigueroa(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> I have good experience on windows server administration but only
> general unix/linux knowledge. I am looking a distro to be use as a
> server for file and printing, domain controller (SAMBA) and proxy
> server for 25 windows client computers.
>

If you are running a business and want supported solution,
then probably the best way to go is to cough up the $$
for RHEL.

If you don't need support then one of the RHEL clones like Centos
would be good choice. You can play with Webmin but just
like in Windows for real control you want to run from a command
line, so in the long run you'd be better off runnning that way.

Most of the initial config will be taken care of for you at
install time if you choose "server" options and answer the various
questions. then you can learn to edit the various pieces
as you go along.

file/proxy server are very simple so those will be easy.
Domain Controller can be very tricky depending upon how
compatibile you need to be with real Windows domains. If you need
custom OU's an dthe like stay with Windows server.

printing can be really easy or a royal pain depending
upon your printers and their support in Linux.

Bottom line though is that what you want is very doable-
just be prepared to learn a little.

Stan

From: General Schvantzkoph on 19 Mar 2010 15:09
On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 18:42:46 +0000, General Schvantzkoph wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:49:01 -0700, artificer wrote:
>
>> I have good experience on windows server administration but only
>> general unix/linux knowledge. I am looking a distro to be use as a
>> server for file and printing, domain controller (SAMBA) and proxy
>> server for 25 windows client computers.
>>
>> I know that all linux distros are capable of doing that but I am
>> looking for a distro with a UI that will be more comfortable to a
>> windows administrator. Also I am looking for a distro that have a long
>> support time.
>> I first considered ubuntu LTS Server but I realized that it have no UI
>> ( I mean by default). And as far as I know it don't have good UI for
>> admins. Please correct me if I am wrong.
>>
>> Them I considered openSUSE because of the YAST control panel but it
>> have a life cicle of 8 months so I am afraid that I will end up having
>> to reinstall or upgrade every year
>>
>> Can anybody please give recommendations on this case?
>
> There is a terrific administration tool called Webmin which works for
> all of the common Linux distros. Webmin is browser based so you can do
> your administration from any machine on your network with a browser.
>
> http://www.webmin.com/
>
> As for your choice of distro, I'd use CentOS 5.4. CentOS is an exact
> clone of Redhat Enterprise Linux. RHEL is rock solid and it has the
> longest support period of any distro.
>
> http://www.centos.org/

One more thing, all mainstream distros include a full desktop and a full
set of server applications, and all have admin utilities that are simple
to use.
In the Windows world Microsoft makes a real distinction between desktop
versions and server versions because they sell them at different price
points. In the Linux world the distros come with everything and the user
decides what they want to install. The real distinction is in the support
period, Redhat Enterprise Linux and it's clones (CentOS and Scientific
Linux) have the longest support period, Fedora (also from Redhat) and
Ubuntu have the shortest (13 months). With any server setup you would
generally install the Desktop (usually Gnome or KDE) and then disable the
X server after you've done your initial configuration. Disabling the X
server isn't necessary but it does save RAM and CPU cycles so most
servers run with it off.

Turning off X is trivial, there is a file called /etc/inittab which you
can edit, the contents of the file are below

# Default runlevel. The runlevels used are:
# 0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
# 1 - Single user mode
# 2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have
networking)
# 3 - Full multiuser mode
# 4 - unused
# 5 - X11
# 6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
#
id:3:initdefault:

For a server you would set the init level to 3 for a desktop you would
set it to 5. If you are running at init 3 you can always start X by hand
with the command startx, that's sometimes useful if you need to get any
any of the GUIs. Personally I almost never do that. I install webmin
during the initial configuration and use that. If I need to do something
else like editing a file I do that by secure shelling (ssh) into the
system and running Xemacs.

From: The Natural Philosopher on 19 Mar 2010 16:08
artificer wrote:
> I have good experience on windows server administration but only
> general unix/linux knowledge. I am looking a distro to be use as a
> server for file and printing, domain controller (SAMBA) and proxy
> server for 25 windows client computers.
>
> I know that all linux distros are capable of doing that but I am
> looking for a distro with a UI that will be more comfortable to a
> windows administrator. Also I am looking for a distro that have a long
> support time.
> I first considered ubuntu LTS Server but I realized that it have no UI
> ( I mean by default). And as far as I know it don't have good UI for
> admins. Please correct me if I am wrong.
>
> Them I considered openSUSE because of the YAST control panel but it
> have a life cicle of 8 months so I am afraid that I will end up having
> to reinstall or upgrade every year
>
> Can anybody please give recommendations on this case?

I run debian with webmin as a remote admin type facikity.

It does MOST things really well once you have the box set up, which does
usually require textual tweaks, but that's because in my case, there is
no screen attached, so until its running on the network, its hard to use
a GUI at all.

I have to say, that once running, there IS no system administration to
do, by and large.

It runs SQL. If I need to delve into taht webmin is very good, and
phpmyadmion alos works.

I set its mail up entiurely with webnin.

Cron scrips can't be written in webmin, but they can be installed in it.

I dont use a GUI to install packages: I am not sure whether webmin has a
frontend to APT stuff or not. That I do use the command line for.


I am not sure how much it fr9nts up a[pache or sdamaba either, but they
are both once set up stable.

To updates the websites on it I use samba or NFS to share the web server
directory trees.

Used to use netatalk when we were running mac OS9 clients, but samba is
better for OS-X and windows.,

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