So I have a home programming project that i'm working on. Your typical java webapp.

So I need (want) my old linux box to run:

Linux with my wireless network card
Java
Tomcat
Apache
mysql

So I've installed FC6 and tried and tried and tried to get the wireless card to work.. yeah... nice try... didn't work.

So I heard about ubuntu... So I first tried the server install. Seemed nice... seemed to have installed the apache and mysql all by itself... but alas no
wireless card support. (although I thought it looked like it was going to work for a minute)

So I installed ubuntu desktop..... and BLAMO, instant wireless support... I can BROWSE THE WEB! I was so pleased!

So... my question.

IS there any real reason why unbuntu desktop is named desktop and server is named server? Or is it just each one has its own specail software installed?

Any reason not to install java/tomcat/mysql/apache onto unbuntu desktop? Any specail behind the scenes packages I should be installing?

Thanks in advance....

Glenn

In my experience, most Linux distros that have different versions to choose from simply offer different default package sets to install.

Also from experience, a desktop machine will perform just fine when serving out web apps and services as long as the hardware will support the load.

You should make sure that you have a nice firewall in place, and possibly a proxy server for Intrusion Detection-type services if the machine is going to be open to the "cloud", but beyond that, you should be just fine.

The only difference between desktop/server is a server-tuned kernel (which you can install if you started with the desktop version) and the fact that the server doesn't come with a GUI by default. The packages are the same, from the same repositories.