Years ago I tried out Webmin, and it seemed like a neat idea, a web-based app to configure a *nix server. I never got too far past the “neat idea” stage of using it though, until now…

Webmin really impresses! It’s got a lot of great modules, as well as third party modules, and things like Virtualmin for managing virtual hosting, and Usermin which is aimed towards system users. (There’s even a wishlist for future modules.)

Looks like I’ve got a lot of research to do. Luckily there are books available, as well as documentation.

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I got a Gmail account last night, and while I’ve only played with it a for a few minutes so far, it looks like a decent enough webmail app, but it does not impress me like FastMail does. Ok, Gmail is still beta, and I’m sure they will add to it, and refine it, but from a feature standpoint, I think FastMail blows it away…

GMail’s strength is probably in it’s searching capabilities, and the fact that you get 1 gig of space. I’m tempted to backup important files, encrypt them with GUI and then email them to my Gmail account… Of course I’m sure with the processing power of the Google cluster, they could decrypt them before 2038. ;)

Anyway, if you want to see an extremely well done webmail application, take a look at FastMail, because it really is that good.

(Oh, I’m assuming Gmail will be free, or the sponsors/ads will pay for things and the users will get it for free. FastMail does have a free offering, but they also have a $14.95 one-time membership which seems like a great deal, and there are no ads…)

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