I've decided that I've learned much more deep linux shell tech this year and might be ready to try to break away from my expensive cpanel habit.

I can greatly reduce my hosting costs (basically cut them in half) if I can learn how to setup a webserver on a bare vps.

I know I will be using litespeed instead of apache and CSF+LFD is a must. Since webmin seems to work with all of that and is the most developed free/open panel, I guess that's where I'm headed.

Certainly others have gone on this path before me, is there any feedback, advice on what my learning curve is going to be? Anything I haven't considered? I've got three weeks to make it happen if I am going to do it.

Webmin is easy to install and manage. If you have the basic knowledge in linux you can go ahead. Here is a very good guide.

http://swelltech.com/support/webminguide/

Thank you, that looks like a great guide!

and don't forget the free version of Virtualmin, which will help you perform soem repetitive tasks, without affecting the way webmin works.

Should I have my host install webadmin on a fresh vps or should I even install it myself and learn from there?

I still don't quite understand the function of virtualmin but I will definitely read up on it.

One thing I know right away is that I need SSL for security so I hope centos comes with openssl installed or I will have to muck through that a bit to get it working with webmin.

Virtualmin is a the webmin equivalent of a control panel. CPs do the repetitive work for you, so when you create a new domain, it writes a new virtualhost record for apache, a new email record, a new user account etc etc.

The difference with Virtualmin is that it works like webmin in that it modifies the files that you already have on the system, just as if you'd gone in and altered the configuration yourself. and, you don't have to use it - you can go into webmin, modify things and virtualmin will pick them up.

Centos comes with ssl installed. If not, try "yum install openssl" at a shell prompt.

Ah. This is why I love this forum, so many experienced people willing to help. Many thanks.

One of these days I really need to setup a local vmware copy of centos running so I can practice.

Can webmin or virtualadmin do things like install pro-ftpd for me or am I going to have to learn to do things like apt-get on a bare system without cpanel?

no, webmin won't install packages for you, but its easy to do. If you have Centos, type 'yum install XYZ' at a shell prompt and you're pretty much done. You might have to download the appropriate webmin module to configure it if you havn't got it installed already.

That's the best thing about webmin, it configures what you've got, it doesn't tell you what it insists you're going to have to use.