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GUI Desktop on a VPS
Dear Low End Talk Visitors,
Today I ask about your thoughts on buying a VPS, how many of you use terminal/SSH and how many of you know about a GUI on a VPS?
It's a question I ask myself, I have been offering internet services for over 4 years and my major disruption from new customers is they don't have a clue about managing a Linux VPS. Most of the time, it falls to system administrators to take time personally and help clients with issues, it's great that users are wanting to learn, but there's an easier way!
Are you aware that there is easy tutorials out there to get a desktop environment online in less than 30 minutes?
I know a lot are familiar with Team Viewer and VNC, but do you know you can use that to remote into a VPS?
I think its a great solution that should be offered to most novice admins wanting to delve into the world of Linux via a VPS. There is access for Office applications, and GIMP for artwork/graphics. The possibilities are endless and it becomes your home computer away from home, easy to manage and can easily drop back into a terminal/SSH at the push of a button.
There is a great article from rackspace documented here: http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/vnc-install
Yet another with Gnome:
http://blog.serverbuddies.com/install-vnc-in-vps-server-with-gnome-2/
So for all you Linux enthusiasts out there who want to learn Linux but don't know the basic commands I think the best step to take is by starting something your familiar with, with all these great offers on LowEndBox.com you would be insane not to try it!
Regards
Comments
Insane I tell you..
I am using Gnome on my Ubuntu vps.. with xrdp so that easily I can access the machine from windows client.
Working great !
You do realize you're talking to a crowd that focus's on VPS's that can barely run Apache with 2 simultaneous requests, right? How are they supposed to run a whole desktop environment?
@Rallias you mean these can't run 2 simultaneous requests in Apache?
http://www.lowendbox.com/blog/waveride-e5-monthly-4gb-openvz-vps-in-vienna-austria/
http://www.lowendbox.com/blog/letbox-7month-5120mb-openvz-vps-in-dallas-texas/
http://www.lowendbox.com/blog/overzold-4-55-5gb-ram-openvz-vps-in-milan-italy/
Please tell me more about your exciting theory (or about your wet fantasies regarding what the crowd "focus's" on).
As for the topic itself, I think it's a phenomenally stupid idea. Plunking a GUI on top of a GNU/Linux VPS is not going to make it easier for anyone to admin it. There are valid uses for a GUI on a VPS, but that's when you need GUI apps specifically, not because you hope that it will make easier for you to configure Apache.
l2readsarcasm
Did you also know you can install Apache on a VPS, too? It's true!
Oh and guess what, nginx also works!
Ever thought of offering this as an OS template? it sure would save your admin a lot of time..
I've run GUI on a VPS many times and I don't think I ever used one larger then 256mb. My recommendation would be LXDE or XFCE and NoMachine(NX), lighter memory and better GUI response then any comparable solution.
I have seen templates with GUI's preinstalled at various providers but none of them were lightweight.
I have VNC running on a 32mb VPS.. I use flwm or JWM.. works great for surfing the net, but a bit low for running flash/youtube.
Mine only uses 32MB RAM too. Running LXDE Desktop on 512 XEN.
Excellent, Mixed reactions, what a great debate.
Templates with installed and configured GUI could be useful - in my opinion installing a web server is easier than installing and configuring GUI.
Interesting..somehow I havent ever used a GUI yet.
I am not sure if you are serious about that.
A real web server configuration for the job at hand is not an easy task, especially in an environment low on resources, while a gui will just work after following a tutorial. A gui is multipurpose and you just apt-get whatever you need while a tutorial on a web server cant really take into consideration all the usage scenarios.
personally i never used a gui on any of my vps's/dedi's.. as whatever i need can be done commandline or webserver has a controle panel installed where you can do most stuff..
but i'm interested in a remote gui.. like many windows related services have.
one that i can run on my pc at home where i can tweak settings/configs.. and that the program translates it to commandline using ssh.. so basicly putty with a backend controle panel..
anyone knows if this exists?
I meant that installing Apache web server is easier than installing and configuring VNC from the perspective of someone new to Linux.
That's why templates with already installed and configured GUI could be useful from the same perspective.
There's Webmin. Webmin is nice.
On a VPS a GUI can be useful if it is what the user wants. Perhaps some users want a VPS ad a remote desktop that is available from anywhere. But a full blown GUI on something that is running a server makes no sense unless it is a local offline box or something that is not in production. I can't really see how a desktop environment can help manage a production Linux server.
I use then my GUI server to browse the web and transfer files from site to site using a much more powerful network then my internet at home
You can have both. For example a full blown gnome on one of the OVerZold servers will not use proportionally so much resources as on an 256 MB low end box and wont stand in the way of a server daemon or two.
It solves problems that need a screen session, for instance, you can monitor multiple apps without cycling through screen sessions or opening multiple terminals on your device. There are many uses A desktop can have even on a server, granted, not indispensable, but if the resources permit, it can help some things. You will not need 2 machines, one for RDP and one for the actual server, 2 IPs, etc.
This is what I require a GUI for too. I frequently need to download file from file sharing hosts-usually >1GB in size, usually Android firmware. For downloading from files like Hotfile, lynx, elinks dont cut it. The latest plowshare seems to have a bug for the hotfile plugin.
I dont believe a GUI is required for installing/configuring a VPS.
I'd suggest not using Gnome or KDE (or any other heavy GUI) and I'd suggest using LDXE, OpenBox, FLWM etc as they're pretty light on resources and work pretty well too
Here are 2 OVZ templates with a desktop on them. The first one is Debian 7 minimal with a LXDE desktop configured and XRDP to connect with Windows RemoteDesktop client. 569mb
http://www.freevpstemplates.com/template/debian-7.0-amd64-minimal-Lxde.tar.gz
The 2nd one has the kitchen sink. LAMP, ownCloud, XRDP, Webmin on port 10000, GNOME desktop, and much more. 626mb
http://www.freevpstemplates.com/template/centos-6-x86_64-LAMPrdpOwncloud.tar.gz