* * * * *

                                     Sigh

I really had to wonder what I did to earn my current project.

I think I've mentioned several times how much I dislike control panels (yes,
I thought I did … here (Control panels) [1], here (Control panels redux) [2],
here (Control panels redux redux) [3], here (User expectation) [4], here
(Help! I'm drowning in a sea of control panels) [5], here (More Server
Madness) [6], here (And even in the hills, I can't escape) [7], here (My life
in a bad Star Trek episode) [8], here (There actually is a control panel I
like) [9], here (Uh oh …) [10], here (So that didn't work) [11], here
(Reduced Configurations) [12], here (Um … sure … this is easier …) [13], here
(Why yes, I haven't updated in a while …) [14], here (People today kept
telling me I should take deep breaths) [15] and here (It's about time!)
[16]). And yet what do I find myself doing as a project?

Installing yet another control panel.

Since we don't currently use this one, I will name names for the one Smirk
has in mind—Web-CP [17]. Smirk wants to use it since the price is right (free
as in beer). And yes, I can understand his reasoning for this and in fact, I
can agree with him.

But that doesn't mean I like the darned things.

Especially this Web-CP thing. I don't really know what to make of the
following post on their support forums:

> The goal of this post is not to intentionally make anyone mad, put off or
> making you feel inadequate where linux is concerned. However, it is assumed
> you ARE VERY familiar with linux - no matter what distribution you use—this
> software is NOT for a newb Linux user—it requires an above average
> knowledge and skill to install, run and maintain. Not only linux, but php,
> mysql, html and about 15 other packages that it takes to run webcp.
>

“READ THIS BEFORE YOU POST PLEASE [18]”

“Newb Linux user?”

But besides that … 15 packages in addition to PHP [19], MySQL [20] and Apache
[21]?

But besides that … it takes a skilled user to use? That's the part (well, one
of the parts) I have qualms about this package. The way it's worded makes it
seem like it requires a skilled person to use the package, which isn't why
Smirk wants the thing. Smirk wants a control panel to let a person manage
their website—you know, add subdomains, users, email addresses, databases,
that type of thing. Simple stuff like that. But using the online Web-CP Demo
[22] doesn't instill confidence that this thing will be simple to use.

For one thing, the navigation is horrendous, leading to a horrible user
experience. There are also limited actions and it's hard to see how to
actually manage a website. Granted, this is a demonstration, but given that
there's fairly complex but quite terse, installtion instructions [23]
involving the installation of 18 packages (including the custom compilation
of PHP so you can run PHP scripts from the command line) it's not something
that is … um … easy … to test (and yes, I've mentioned to Smirk several times
just how … um … convoluted … the installation is) to possibly get around
several demonstration based limits (not to mention that it's only supported
for Fedora Core [24] 1—anything else and you are pretty much on your own—
needless to say, the distribution we're using means we're pretty much on our
own).

Blah.

So, not only do the various Linux distributions insist on adminstrating the
systems as they see fit (and it gets back to a saying I've heard: “when
you've seen one Unix system, you've seen one Unix system”) but then you have
to twist and contort a possibly annoying administration system for use under
a control panel that insists on doing things their [the control panel's] way.
So what I'm really grousing about is that not only do the distributions not
work the way I expect a Unix system to work, but the control panels can't be
made to work the way I expect a control panel to work (that is, if I actually
liked using control panels, which I don't).

I'm seriously considering that it may be easier to write a simple control
panel that it would be to adapt some mutant PHP-based control panel.

[Smirk did give me an option to swap projects with P, which is setting up the
backup system which has to deal with both Insipid and Blech … and honestly, I
don't know who has it worse!]

[1] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2004/11/22.3
[2] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2004/12/07.1
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2004/12/08.1
[4] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2004/12/27.2
[5] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/01/07.1
[6] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/01/09.2
[7] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/01/15.1
[8] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/02/08.1
[9] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/02/10.1
[10] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/02/17.1
[11] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/02/17.2
[12] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/03/22.2
[13] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/04/07.2
[14] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/05/18.1
[15] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/05/25.1
[16] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2005/08/08.2
[17] http://www.web-cp.net/
[18] http://www.web-/
[19] http://www.php.net/
[20] http://www.mysql.com/
[21] http://httpd.apache.org/
[22] http://www.web-cp.net/demo.php
[23] http://www.web-/
[24] http://fedora.redhat.com/

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