A typical Linux server runs in a command line interface (CLI) environment, preloaded with bare essential tools needed to install and configure various headless services. Compared to a full-blown GUI desktop image, such a minimal setup is advantageous in terms of security, resource consumption and speed.

If you are used to GUI-based environment, however, you may wonder whether there is a GUI for Linux server. A typical Linux desktop environment like GNOME, KDE, etc. will probably be too resource-heavy for what it's worth, and not very secure because more codes are subject to security vulnerabilities.

An alternative to a full-blown desktop GUI is to use a web-based server administration tool. There are several web-based system configuration tools, such as Webmin, ISPconfig, Zentyal, etc.

In this tutorial, I will describe how to manage and configure a Linux server with Webmin's web-based GUI.