Less-than-serious Tutorial On Ubuntu Web Server Installation
9 Comments Published January 18th, 2007 in Humor, Linux, SoftwareNote: If you’re looking for a more serious tutorial, you should read the previous Ubuntu Web Server Tutorial.
I noticed I had a bit of a traffic spike on Wednesday, so I checked out the referrers (or referers if you’re writing specs for a marvelous thing to be called the “Internet” but you haven’t heard of a dictionary). One source of traffic was Tux Machines, which had a partial version of the post and a link to the full version on my site. I assume that it’s a community-based content-sharing site for Linux, so someone found my article interesting or useful and posted it. Then I read the solitary comment by “vonskippy,” which offered criticism of my post, check it out:
One would hope that if you’re going to write a tutorial on a topic that has been done a least a bazillion times before, that you’d make it interesting, or in-depth, or illustrated with screen shots and graphics, or write in a funny and witty manner, or vary it in even the tiniest way from the other 99.999999% of the same exact tutorials, but nooooooo. Apparently the guy needs to read a good tutorial on that mysterious web thing called “linking”.
I’m sure s/he means well (because bashing just for bashing is even more useless than my clone-like tutorial), but I wasn’t sure why the valuable criticism was not left on my blog where I could easily access it. Well skippy, this post is for you:
(awexome graphics make posts good!)
This post was written based on what I did with my Ubuntu install. It may work on Debian systems, but I don’t guarantee it. Actually, I don’t even guarantee that this works on Ubuntu (though George Zimmer may, assuming Ubuntu is a brand of men’s suits). I probably paid some guys to Photoshop pictures that looked like I actually setup a web server, just like how the AP paid for doctored photos. Of course, you know that’s not likely because I am not rich. If I were, I’d buy a Windows server and pay someone else to deal with the constant problems. Before I forget, if any of these commands don’t work for you, use sudo. Sudo, it’s like Judo only tougher in a binary kind of way. That only works in print, because it’s probably pronounced like “sue doo,” which means JewDew would be a better rhyme. That either refers to a special type of haircut or Mountain Dew you have to drink from a Menora.
Back to the point: a tutorial that’s been done a million+ times before (other search terms give slightly better results). First, open a terminal. If you don’t know how, you’ll be glad to know there’s an easy keyboard shortcut to switch to a terminal. This isn’t a tutorial on Ubuntu/Gnome keyboard shortcuts (nor is it one for Linux keyboard shortcuts in case you wanted to post on some other website to ask if this tutorial was), so just start smashing on your keyboard until something works (though, starting with CTRL, ALT, and one of the function keys might be a good idea).
Terminal open? Good. Terminal not open? You’re retarded. Let’s continue… but not on this page, because that would be too convenient (and probably what all those other tutorials do anyway).
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Wow, nice you are an idiot flash link. I liked how you gave me lots of pretty pictures to enjoy and gave me plenty links to everywhere possible on the internet.
Josh, you’re an asshole. I think that about sums up your attitude
I think, considering why this article was made to begin with, the author made his/her point… Besides, it’s funny as hell
It sucks that people have to nock a guy for trying to help shed a little light, there are those of us who do appreciate it though, keep the tuts coming and many thanks for the effort involved!
To those of you who can’t think of something better to do than flame people for trying to help… You’re the reason why tech support everywhere firmly believes everybody should be forced to take an IQ test prior to buying a computer and another before being allowed internet access. If User_IQ < Potatoe_IQ then User_ID = BANNED!
I am new to this. Did all that but I cant put any files in the www folder, do you have to give yourself write permissions to the folder, is that safe or do you have to log on as root to setup the content
Alonso, /var/www is typically owned by root or www-data, so there are a few ways you can take care of the problem, depending on your concern for security. The best bet is usually to set the group to something like www-data and add your user to that group. When testing out things quickly, I’ve replaced www with a symlink to whatever folder I want to use (such as one in my homedir). You can also change the config to look elsewhere, which is a good option when using vhosts.
Thanks for the reply ian it was helpful
This gave me a much needed laugh in my quest to set up a web server.
I asked my neighbor to print the photo of the keyboard because I couldn’t figure it out. Anyway, when I got to the Best Buy, they didn’t have any with red circles. They only had non-red-circled keyboards. Will those work ok, or do I really need to have the red circle?
Rhys, it’s really tough to say if non-red-circled keyboards will work. I recommend buying a red Sharpie and creating your own red circle; if you do it well enough, the computer might not know the difference. Good luck!