What if you don't use a control panel?
 

I know they make setting up the server and stuff quite easy, but what if you don't use one? Would you just have directories and one would be the public_html for Apache?

If you don't use a control panel. You are going to have to do everything by the command line. Which is a pains taking process. I do believe some of our members run their server by the command line. Hopefully one of them could reply to this thread.

My plan was to set up an ftp server, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, and possibly Tomcat, but that's not important. Then I would do all my website making, and then upload them using the ftp to the right folder. Would that work?

Yes, it will work just fine. But anytime you want to make the slightest change. Your going to have to do it from the command line. Even a simple task such as changing a users password. Its all going to have to be done from the command line.

I am not trying to discourage you in any way. But rather give you the information you need to succeed. Why there are a few servers that don't not run a control panel. I would guess that 99% of the co-located/dedicated servers are running some forum of a control panel. If you do not want to spend the money on a control panel. Webmin www.webmin.com is free. Control panel or no control panel, we are here to help you anyway we can. :)

I would never try to do anything without a control panel.. unless you are some sort of unix geek and know everything off by heart, its just a complete waste of time doing things on the command line when you could it in a few seconds at the click of a button in the control panel.
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Harley-Davidson FL

I run my server without a control panel, I'm not by any means an expert at the command line but I don't always want to take the easy/quickest way out. You definitely learn more by doing stuff through the command line, once you get the basics down its not all that bad.

I know atleast 3 people on these forums that do everything from the control panel. I also think learning the commands is a good idea because then you will have more knowledge and if something would go wrong you have the skills to go in using SSH and find the problem and fix it were you might not be able to with a control panel.

You make a very good point MMeffert. It is a good idea to learn the commands so you can ssh into the server if something goes wrong. But the only time I would need to do that is if the control panel was down. Webmin can do anything from the control panel, that you can do with ssh. Edit files, install programs, run shell commands, I do mean anything. :cool: Not only that I can do it in half of the time with Webmin. Webmin has a little learning curve, but once you master it. You will wonder how you lived with out it.

It is always possible that the webmin service stops running or does not start. THen you have to go into the server and restart it. service webmin restart

Currently, I use control panels for day to day server management, as it is sometimes a little easier to do some of the more complicated tasks, but I have to say that I find webmin a real pain. Mostly, it is so differant to other control panels that I have to go in by the command line and check most things by hand. Because of this, I no longer use webmin as I actually found it easier to do things like add vhosts and setup dns records using vi and the command prompt than it was running up webmin.

Don't get me wrong, webmin is a great program, but for me at least the learning curve of using webmin is far more than just doing things directly in ssh. But that is probably partly because I am a Unix programmer by trade, and I do most of my development using a mixture of telnet (not my choice, but for some customers I have to use it) samba shares, ssh, vi and textedit.