Is it okay to run Centos 5 graphical server in a production enviroment?

[tibberous]

It's graphical, and Gnome, but does that really hurt anything? It's still linux - just linux I might know how to use...

[neylitalo]

Any additional layers come with a stability and security risk. If you have something running in the graphical environment, and the desktop crashes (as X likes to do on occasion), then you lose any and all processes that were spawned within it. And if you forget to lock the screen when you leave, someone can just walk in and do whatever they like.

 

Also, the "I know how to use Gnome" argument is weak in this situation. Most production servers are certainly not going to be running a graphical environment (for the above two reasons, as well as the added resource drain that most graphical environments are), and when you get into a situation where it's not running the graphical environment, you're going to be crippled. You should learn how to use the command-line tools, for a few reasons. You get more control and power, more informative error messages, and once you learn them, you will never be unable to perform a task because of a missing graphical environment or one you don't know.