Directadmin - Falling behind?

Thanks Floyd,

Now I will answer your post. I already gave the reasons why we don't have our own bad ass looking skin in Spanish. And I already gave the reasons why I created this post.

Perhaps you might think they are not good enough reasons, nothing wrong with that, and I can argue that. But I sure gave em already. No need to repeat myself.

The poll idea is certainly a good idea. But I created this thread to express a feeling I had, and talk about it. A poll would have fallen short. Nonetheless, I do value your idea about creating a poll just that I think in this case I wanted a more conversation thread than a "count me in" one.

Cheers
 
I already gave the reasons why we don't have our own bad ass looking skin in Spanish.
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I know. If you would like to know how to get around the text that is hard coded let me know.

By nature I am a problem solver. So when you say you have a problem with translating hard coded text into another language I see that as a challenge to find a way to do it. I think I know a way to do it but I am not going to go to the trouble of actually testing if you really don't want to know the answer.

I never said, "Change the skin becuase I don't like the current skin" or "I don't like DA's current skins."
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I am starting to feel that the other panels are much more beautifull
we need to look bigger, sharper
I think we need to buy DA some new clothes
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You can see how we would get the impression you don't like the current skins.
 
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cyberneticos said:
Perhaps this thread really isn't for you. Why? Becuase something pushed you to use your own skin, right ? In other words, you have already come to the conclusion that DA's skin wasn't good for your company to use, and you took the iniciate to make your own.
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I'm sorry if I gave that impression. What I was trying to say is that we DO use the DirectAdmin skins. And only the directAdmin skins.

Jeff
 
Naaa,. no problem. Maybe I misread what you were trying to say :)

We use the enhanced skin with a "half ass" translation" currently. The translation problem for me has been solved with this post too (my fault for not reading the last release entirely, thanks to smtalk)

I'm also pretty happy with what smtalk has had to say. Certainly stopped me from looking out. I was ready to try cpee, and I?m going to wait to see if what smtalk stated is true. If so, I'm sure this new skin will be exactly what I (and many others) have been waiting for and with the ease of translation, it makes things even better, and up to par with other control panels.

:D
 
Let's not also forget that other control panels cost a lot more too. If you want DirectAdmin to keep up with other control panels then the price is going to have to match as well and I for one do not look forward to that.
 
Good point.

I wouldn't mind paying more, if better. But I think DA is already underway with a new skin with a few new flashy things, and as far as I know won't be charing more.

So DA, in my opinion, will still be the best choice, if smtalk is correct.
 
Have you looked at the third party skins out there for DA? Just a thought.
 
Yes. We have 5 shared hosting servers, and use Marina on them. But for VPS and Ded servers (to reduce costs) we use our translated version of Enhanced.
 
Seems like this thread is stuck on how "pretty" DA is.

I switched from Cpanel to DA because I was tired of the bugs it had, and it was EATING resources for no reason what so ever. At least twice a week there would be an issue with the server needing to reboot.

I have been with DA for 307 days. I know this because I have NEVER had DA force me to restart the server for any reason. In fact, I have been nothing but impressed about how stable it is.

So, is DA falling behind? YES, without a doubt. But, I'm in the so what crowd. Cpanel has a web drive feature that I would LOVE to have, but I don't trust what they put out. DA has earned my trust and my websites stay online thanks to DA.

I would honestly like to see DA as a more PLUGIN oriented application. For example, I would love to install a plugin that uses and implements Google Apps for my mail server. It would be nice to locate the plugin, install it, and then when I create a new domain it would automatically setup the mail server mx records correctly. Currently I'm doing this manually, which is not a big deal, however the whole process is identical and it manually takes me about 10-15 minutes total to get it done. If a plugin existed, I would immediately install it and use it.

DA is very simplistic to use and is easy to teach to my clients. I would LOVE to see an updated look to the panel, but for now I'm gonna use the Enhanced Skin that I changed to gray scale ( http://internet54.com/?page_id=56 )

I could go on and on about what I would like to see, but I am patient. DA is getting updated regularly and there are many behind the scenes things that are being updated that people have no clue why. I trust the developers have a game plan and they are sticking to it. *One of the reasons why the site is sooooo dang ugly ;)
 
Internet54 took the words right out of my mouth.

My take - if user's want all that fancy crap that CPanel has to offer, let them go. I've switched more people from CPanel based systems to my server with DA because CPanel is crap. It's buggy, a lot of the features don't work right, it's a pig, and it's a bullseye for hackers.

The DA staff in my humble opinion has done exactly what they need to do - make the core features of web hosting work, and work well. And that is a monotonous, tedious, time-consuming job. When a lull comes, then work on improving the superfluous fluff (of which, a fancy skin falls into). My user's have been perfectly content with the enhanced skin from DA. I haven't even bothered to change the header.

You as the hosting provider need to remind user's what is important - the stabilization and security of the system.
 
I'm not sure if people are not expressing themselves correctly or others are not understanding what we are talking about.

Let me give some guidance:

1- We are not talking about sacrificing robustness with looks
2- We are not talking about how we or current customers feel
3- We are talking about competing in the market with other panels
4- We are talking about making money and not losing prospects.

Now, with this in mind, so far, I agree with everyone, and even though it might not seem like it, most people agree with me.

Perhaps when people come into this thread and start reading posts , only read the first few lines, and then start typing. So they contest the first few lines they read, but are leaving the other important information behind.

From what I've gathered, which is the purpose of this thread, is that no one wants to sacrifice stability, and robustness for looks and style, but most people do agree that we need to make us look like we are "all that" (because we really are)

Now, aside from how I may feel or everyone else may feel, if what smtalk has affirmed holds true, then Directadmin has also felt what I have and most other people have felt, and have acted upon it.

So I would like to thank Directadmin for putting this extra effort in making ALL of us more competitive.

No need to look out the window any longer.

We are the bomb, and hopefully soon we will also look like we are :D

Thumbs up for DA team.
 
I dunno - a fancy skin a good control panel does not make. Here's the problem - if you study usability at all, 9 out of 10 times this look I think you're referring to means a lot of confusion to the user. There's a real fine line here to looking like all that, but making sure it's still just as usable because in the end, if it's not, that is going to mean hell for all the admins trying to walk customers through how to manage their sites. The current skin makes sense, and gives the most important information I think. It's just something to consider.

cyberneticos said:
I'm not sure if people are not expressing themselves correctly or others are not understanding what we are talking about.

Let me give some guidance:

1- We are not talking about sacrificing robustness with looks
2- We are not talking about how we or current customers feel
3- We are talking about competing in the market with other panels
4- We are talking about making money and not losing prospects.

Now, with this in mind, so far, I agree with everyone, and even though it might not seem like it, most people agree with me.

Perhaps when people come into this thread and start reading posts , only read the first few lines, and then start typing. So they contest the first few lines they read, but are leaving the other important information behind.

From what I've gathered, which is the purpose of this thread, is that no one wants to sacrifice stability, and robustness for looks and style, but most people do agree that we need to make us look like we are "all that" (because we really are)

Now, aside from how I may feel or everyone else may feel, if what smtalk has affirmed holds true, then Directadmin has also felt what I have and most other people have felt, and have acted upon it.

So I would like to thank Directadmin for putting this extra effort in making ALL of us more competitive.

No need to look out the window any longer.

We are the bomb, and hopefully soon we will also look like we are :D

Thumbs up for DA team.
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I don't disagree with that statement.

However, some of the earlier talk of using AJAX and heavy JS sounds moderately like complication to me.
 
i think DA has some prioritys first..

imho they have to fix the backup system first..
i mean:

1. DA is stable
2. DA is trustfull
3. Good to update the machines
4. Fast skin

But it lacks the backup function, and then i mean the restore system ofcourse...

What if an server crashes and you have only the system backup..
GOOD LUCK :)

Better they first fix the ultimate restore option..
Like hdd broke? replace hdd, plain install os, restore system backup and its running again..
Now it will take hours to restore an server..

When thats 100% to, then the skin and plugins.. imho
 
itsensellc said:
I dunno - a fancy skin a good control panel does not make. Here's the problem - if you study usability at all, 9 out of 10 times this look I think you're referring to means a lot of confusion to the user. There's a real fine line here to looking like all that, but making sure it's still just as usable because in the end, if it's not, that is going to mean hell for all the admins trying to walk customers through how to manage their sites. The current skin makes sense, and gives the most important information I think. It's just something to consider.
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I agree with you. But don't get me wrong with the "looking all that" statement. I definetely love how simple DA is to use, and I do not want to make it all crazy looking. But perhaps a little more modern looking, a bit more web 2.0 looking, same feature,. maybe a navigation menu so you can get to one place from another, etc.. those types of things.

I think we are all on the same page. I agree that we need to fix other importante problems first, but this is also important and we can't afford to just ignore how we appear to the outside.

I also agree that heavy JS and fancy stuff is not good. Cpanel looks good, but it is crowded and extremely confusing. But look at plesk, it's clean, professional looking (but lacks a little in functionality) but it looks good.

Again, I think we are all on the same page.
 
demz said:
imho they have to fix the backup system first..
i mean:


But it lacks the backup function, and then i mean the restore system ofcourse...

What if an server crashes and you have only the system backup..
GOOD LUCK :)
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Then you are using the wrong backup system. The System Backup precedes the Admin Backup system. The Admin Backup system backs up everything you need to restore users on a new server. I have been using it since it was in beta.

There are good reasons why there is no restore function for System Backup as has been discussed on this forum a number of times.

If you want to discuss backups some more then its probably best to start a new thread.
 
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