Webmin

[Joaquin Menchaca]

Joshua Tinnin wrote:

>On Friday 17 December 2004 05:09 pm, Nikolas Britton 
><freebsd at nbritton.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>mark at the-allisons.us wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>I've recently installed FreBSD on a system and I'm working though
>>>the learning process.
>>>
>>>In order to ease the configuration and maintenance issues I
>>>installed Webmin.
>>>      
>>>
>>I am of the opinion that if you want to learn something that you just
>>dig in and go for it at full bore, (even if you brake it, as this is
>>a very valuable learning experience in and of itself and one of the
>>best ways to learn*) not skirt around the issue using some wizard
>>thingy so you never have to learn it. What happens when your wizard
>>thingy stops working or brakes your system, what are you going to do
>>then?
>>
>>*This is why I setup test machines and try to brake crap then try to
>>fix it, If I can't then all I have to do is wipe it clean and start
>>over. VMware works very well for this.
>>    
>>
>
>Yes, I agree, and you should probably get used to administration through 
>a shell (command line). I know this can be scary at first, but there is 
>no purpose in delaying getting used to it, because if you're going to 
>run FreeBSD, you have to get used to it. However, like grammar, once 
>you know the rules you can break them, within reason - once you 
>understand how to do it the "hard way," then figure out a way to make 
>it easier, except if doing it the hard way has a purpose (like 
>discouraging mistakes or certain behaviors), or many times you'll 
>discover that what looked like the hard way is actually easier. As an 
>example, at first I used cvsup with the gui, but I found almost 
>immediately that invoking it without the gui from a shell was not only 
>easier and simpler, but it also allowed me to use it within a script so 
>I could run it as a cron job. I still use a gui mailer and run my box 
>for everyday use with a desktop, but I do all administration with 
>shells or without X running at all (and sometimes Mutt and w3m are just 
>fine, instead of KMail and Firefox). FreeBSD is created more as a 
>server than a workstation or general desktop machine, but it works fine 
>for me that way, although the administration of it reflects this 
>distinction. I'm not saying you can't use Webmin, but I'd encourage you 
>to try to admin it the way it's designed before you start adding stuff 
>to it, just so you know what's going on behind that ui.
>
>As far as your particular problem, I'm not familiar with Webmin, but you 
>might have to install ssh or something similar to allow remote access 
>with it. That question is probably best asked on the -questions list 
>http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions , which is 
>the main tech help list - this is not a tech help list - although you 
>most likely will get a similar response, but perhaps someone does know.
>
>- jt
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>  
>
Hey can I jump in. :-)  I am totally of the faith that one should learn 
the command line way.  However, there's nothing like a graphical 
interface that can bring many concepts together, as well as expose the 
user to new concepts.  I am a right-side thinker (er or was that left 
side), and I understand things visually and abstractually.  I started on 
Mac OS 6  (System 6), migrated to Windows platforms, and now I am a big 
time advocate of open source and love UNIX. :-) 

I couldn't have gotten here if it wasn't for the GUIs (some good some 
bad) that exposed me to many concepts.  Once, I know the concept(s) and 
I merely ask, How do I do that on platform X...

I hope that there can always be the best of both worlds, both a great 
UI, but excellent under-the-hood configuration through text config files.