I think that the one thing I've learnt over the last couple of weeks is
that there is actually no need to rely on graphical tools ON the
servers. It is these which 'muddy the waters' on the linux
distributions, but even when managing from a windows machine, there is
no need to enable the very bits that were the cause of my problems ;)
All I need is a current working copy of Apache, PHP and Firebird.

FlameRobin handles all the database management nicely, and I can add php
pages for the other parts that on site engineers may need. Remote access
directly into the machines will remain a problem, but after a
conversation yesterday with a site that had insisted on only Windows
servers a couple of years ago, I think we may well have turned the
corner. He asked how I would prefer to access the linux machine :)

Now we just need them to accept that if the only program running on a
client machine is a browser, then why have an expensive copy of windows
behind it? Increasingly all the work is being done through web pages,
and certainly there is no need for any 'multimedia' - they don't even
have speakers ;)

--
Lester Caine - G8HFL
-----------------------------
Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact
L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk
EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/
Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk//
Firebird - http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php