[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
Julian Hall wrote: > > Saying 'Don't use webmin because of possible issues with Apache' is like > saying 'Don't use the World Wide Web because of issues with the > Internet', inasmuch as the underlying framework has little to do with > the separate service run on top of it. Agreed. My complaint about webmin, and most similar admin tools, is that you either need to understand how it all works in order to drive the tool, if you have that level of knowledge it is often easier and more flexible just to configure it at the command line, or it allows you to try stuff which you have no idea how it all works, which is fine till it breaks or your computer gets compromised. The best of these tools was the HP-UX system administration tool, which would tell you exactly what commands it was running on your behalf, so if things went wrong, or you wanted to automate a task done at the GUI, you could just open the log window and see precisely what it was doing. Only time I insisted on using it, was when doing disk administration tasks, as before it would reformat a partition it would do a series of sanity checks. Of course then HP-UX disk names were all /dev/c0d1t2, and systems often had MANY disks, and a mistype like /dev/c0d2t1 would have you spending the afternoon with a back-up tape. HP-UX system admin tool famously used a standard password on all installed - doh. The only time I use a GUI these days for Unix system administration is with CUPS, or system installation, and with CUPS I suspect it is because I haven't read a suitable introduction to the command line tools, and touch it so rarely. I suspect also CUPS is opening all sorts of security issues underneath if I cared to look, judging from the kinds of errors it spews (no necessarily CUPS itself, but the drivers for printers). I suspect the issue is largely insurmountable. Indeed my job is really about making the interface to the technology simple enough for other people to use it. Microsoft haven't really made any great inroads into GUI for system administration either, as you can make your system toast in a few mouse clicks if you don't have a clear understanding of the disk management tools they supply. Such that if they had a sensible command line interface I'd probably use it in preference, not least it would be easier to document build procedures and such like. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html