Getting weaned off Cpanel

[Note: This is not intended to be a complaint rant. Just wanted to get my thought process down. ]
I spent the last few hours figuring out how to configure my Textdrive account. After years of using Cpanel and recently enjoying the ease of Fantastico installations, I felt handicapped using a text-only interface containing terms I didn’t understand. I did wonder how come there were no screen shots of Textdrive’s admin panel before I signed up for their Mixed Grill deal, but then thought ‘Nah, it can’t be that bad.’ Caveat emptor, my bad.
From something beautiful like this:

To this (Webmin):

In any case, I had to get going. A few emails to tech support answered my main question, which was, “What exactly is the full web address for my main cgi-bin folder?” because it wasn’t contained in the public_html folder where I kept my HTML pages, but higher up in a parallel universe in the folder hierarchy. Fortunately, tech support was able to resolve the issue by telling me to proceed as usual. The folder didn’t logically seem to be there, but it was.
On the plus side, I don’t have to pay monthly fees, ever. I get lots more space – just in time as my old web hosting account is approaching its file size limit. I’ll be using a newer version of Perl, so maybe MTValidate will work once again on this blog.
On the other hand, using Cpanel it would have taken me a matter of minutes to set up a new database, a new username, assign the username to the database, configure MT and install everything.
Need to host another friend’s domain? Simple – set up a subdomain. The cgi-bin folder is automatically created within. Install MT. Point the domain name to my subdomain. Done.
Feeling lazy and need to install WordPress? Use Fantastico. Define a folder path. Done. I can focus on creating content, not worrying about the technology behind it.
As for the rest of Mixed Grill: I’m still waiting for my Strongspace account to be activated. They did say it would take weeks to upgrade the servers, so I guess they’re still within their deadline. I’m in no hurry, anyway. I’m also looking forward to their customised control panel, called Textpanel. Some have high hopes for it. Others acknowledge:

I could imagine that Webmin probably creates more of a workload than there otherwise might be. An easier control panel would probably cut down the support tickets from people not familiar with it.

Amen! Strike off three emails from me.