Phil Leinhauser wrote:
Everyone seems to think Qcontrol or VQadmin are the only ways to get
domains into QMT. I personally use webmin. In the command line
section I have the history of commands run and I queue up a past
domain add, modify it for the new domain and kick it off.
Qcontrol does a LOT more than create domains.
Do you have a tool to read log files?
Modify control files?
Look at the Queue?
Check and modify Spamassasin?
and a LOT more...
I feel like an infomercial... BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!
It whitens and brightens...
Come on people
Thanks for the plug, Phil. I was off for a bit fixing a broken laptop
screen and was surprised to see this much traffic on the list. This
particular topic has generated quite a stir!
I think the topic covers a few different things. First and foremost is
why Vqadmin is still in the package list - I guess laziness and
hesitation on my part. It's always been there, so I left it there. There
- I admit laziness. Hesitation to remove it also brushes on my laziness,
but brings a key point to the forefront. If I remove it, what do I
replace it with? I've noticed a trend in the -- we'll call it quality --
of questions posted by new users on the mailing list. If they don't have
a GUI/web administration tool then they do not have the technical
knowledge (or incentive) to use the system in general. I've gotten
questions off-list where I have to ask, should this person even be
running a server?
I think for this group of people a GUI/web-GUI is a must. They will not
be able to use the system otherwise. For this reason I hesitate to
completely remove vqadmin. Maybe if I make it a package that is not
installed by default? Really it would only be removed from the install
scripts, and we would be forcing users to go out of their way to choose
a web administration method or learn the CLI. What does everyone think
of that?
<my message gets long after this point, and I do rant some, so feel free
to skip it>
<okay, I rant a lot>
Another stream this topic brushes on is the commercial/pay versus open
source and free (not the same thing people!).
I took the project over and contribute to it because I support open
source. I run this particular project (and contribute to several others)
because I like the idea and want to keep the spirit alive.
I also run my own business, so I look at things through two different
sets of glasses.
Why did I make 2 different versions of QControl? Because open source
doesn't generate revenue unless specifically designed to do so. Most
open source projects plan on generating revenue based upon support. We
have a *great* support system here in the mailing list, so commercial
support is generally not needed.
Donations do not work: I had the QMT-ISO domain for 2 years. In that 2
years (after 2500+ downloads, 900+ petabytes in traffic) I never
received donation one. When a user was questioning why they had to pay
for the download of CentQMT5, I explained exactly why I was charging for
it - and they donated $10 to the QTP project. QTP is another project
that had a donation box up for a couple years that only received the one
donation.
While I did receive some thanks from both projects, that does not cover
costs. I am slimming the project down some to reduce my costs, but for a
while there I was spending a couple hundred dollars a month on server
space, rack space, bandwidth costs, etc. AND I was expected to provide
free support on the mailing list - people actually get mad and
occasionally call me names when they contact me off-list for support and
I tell them for the level of support they need they must pay.
From a business standpoint, this project is very much like our (United
States) economy - a big hole that money was shoveled into in the hopes
that it will turn out better in the future. Before I took the project
over I had a good taste of what was to be expected (from the QMT-ISO and
QTP projects), so this was no big shock.
I charge for QControl to make some money. You won't willingly send me
any money so I charge for the software. Plain and simple.
I couldn't give up my "free" ideals, so I made a version that allows you
to control one domain and give that one away. Maybe you'll buy the other
one in the future. At least I didn't price it on a commercial scale -
it's still inexpensive enough for anyone.
And before you rant about my greedy habits and nazi-esque viewpoint,
understand that I'm pretty much only covering costs at this point. I
still run/maintain the entire QMT project with no incentive, and you get
the benefits for nothing.
Is $30 really that expensive? Then sit down, write your own, send it to
me, and I'll place it on the website.
I don't include the QControl package in the main QMT trunk because it is
not free. While it does have a free component, I shudder to think of the
emails I would receive (and names I would be called) if I added a
package into the fray that did not allow certain users to run their
business and generate them income and then forced them to pay for something.
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