[jasonkester]

Coming from the Windows world, I've had nothing but frustration trying to manage the one Ubuntu box that I have running on EC2. The OS and desktop seems workable, but the tools available to interact with it are simply not there.

An example: I VNC into the box, pull up a file in the editor, head back to my Windows machine, copy some text, head back to the Ubuntu box, hit "paste". Nothing happens. [skip forward past 4 hours of frustration, trying to get copy/paste working]. Still no luck. All I can find is random posts on the internet saying essentially either "you can't do that". Or, "that's easy, just..." followed by 24 steps of command line interaction to get it working on one specific configuration (that I don't have).

Another example: Trying to transfer files back & forth between my windows machine and a remote box running Ubuntu. Same 4 hours of frustration. Same complete lack of progress.

I realize that you guys probably don't consider this to be a Ubuntu problem. That it's just an issue with 3rd party tools. And that it's simply a case of one of your users who doesn't know what he's doing. Those last two things are undoubtedly true, but the first one definitely is not.

This is your problem. If you want people like me using your OS for their servers, you need to give us tools to do it. Connecting to a remote Windows server lets me step seamlessly into it via Remote Desktop. Copy/Paste works correctly without me ever having to think about it. I can even see my local file system on the remote box and vice versa. That's the standard we're accustomed to in the Windows world, so that's what you're going to need to match if you want us using your OS.

If you can get that working, I'm there. I realize it will probably involve you guys releasing your own VNC client and your own SSH Tunneling thing, and otherwise reinventing the wheel half a dozen times. But it will reduce friction for people who want to use your stuff. And as far as I can tell, that's what you want.

[sofuture]

I don't mean this with any Linux-nerd snark at all: You shouldn't be administering a Linux server with remote desktop. You shouldn't even have X installed on your servers. Even if you can administer some things, you'll find the tools just aren't there, and you'll spend all your time in a terminal windows.

Honestly, your life will be dramatically improved if you spend 30 minutes getting comfortable with the commandline, the bare-bones-basics of vim and SSH/SCP. Copy/paste and file transfers are solved problems with PuTTY and Filezilla.

(In my personal life I am a total Linux/BSD user, but professionally I am a .Net dev who deploys to Linux on EC2 from Windows, so I have a little bit of standing to speak!)

[numix]

This isn't very helpful in your specific problem, but typically servers don't have graphical capabilities. So much so, that I was a little baffled when I read that you VNC'ed into one. Instead your local toolchain interacts with the remote.

If I wanted to paste something in a file remotely, I'd open it in my local editor (which can ssh into remote machines). If I needed to transfer files back and forth, I'd use an FTP client (Filezilla works cross-platform).

[jasonkester]

Are you saying you've found a way to remotely browse the filesystem of your Ubuntu box from within windows (without resorting to FTP?). As in, something that ties into windows explorer and lets you deal with remote files as though they were local?

If so, please point me to it.

But that's sort of the point I'm trying to make. If the Ubuntu team wants to get Windows devs to try out their thing, they need to make stuff like this completely painless. To the point of building a "Windows Kit" that you simply install at your end and it hooks you up with a complete set of tools you need to interact with your remote server.

[rufugee]

Yes, it's called WinSCP: http://winscp.net/eng/index.php. It makes the remote filesystem appear as if it's just a local filesystem (if you choose the explorer interface type).

[sofuture]

Look into filesystems over SSH. There are things like that for windows and they work okay (though what's wrong with using an FTP/SFTP client?)

I think you're missing the point that admining a Linux server is different. The complete set of tools you need to interact with a remote Linux server is: an SSH client.

[mtogo]

I've used ubuntu on servers before and it is quite painless. You've inflicted a fair ammount of pain on yourself by running a graphical interface on a server.

As others have stated, spending 15 minutes learning about the linux commandline will save you a ton of time, effort, and pain.

[jasonkester]

The GUI was an attempt to alleviate the pain caused by years of having to poke at Linux boxes through a terminal. As far as I'm concerned, it's still orders of magnitude better than having to type out keyboard commands to navigate around the filesystem.

It's just a shame that the tools to do it remotely aren't up to scratch.

[mtogo]

I assume this is a joke...

[clark-kent]

using WinSCP to access your Ubuntu box via ssh from Windows should be an easier option.