ServerGUI - Community Help Wiki

ServerGUI - Community Help Wiki

Arguments Against a GUI

Most Ubuntu Server developers recommend not installing a GUI on a server. There are multiple reasons for not installing a GUI.

Some reasons to not install a GUI include:

• You'll have more code subject to security vulnerabilities, more packages that need updating, and more server downtime.
• Performance may suffer because resources (memory, hard disk space, CPU, etc.) will be consumed by the GUI.
• It is best practice to only install needed software on a production server.
• The GUI may include other network services that are inappropriate for a server.
  • One
    of the goals of Ubuntu Desktop Edition is to make it easier for users
    to use Linux. When installing some desktop environments, services that
    you may not specifically want will be installed. For example avahi-daemon,
    which is used to help configure networking, adds another open port and
    may introduce unwanted DNS conflicts with a .local domain.
• If
  you're using an Ubuntu LTS release prior to 12.04 LTS, X11 and desktop
  packages are not supported for the full 5 year lifecycle of the LTS
  server release.

So for the most secure server it is best to not install a GUI.

But there are many good alternatives for effective server management.