[Mailman-Users] Support for Cpanel users?

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

JB at comcast writes:

 > is it possible for a Server Provider to dump the cPanel version of
 > MM and do a source install that would work similar to the
 > pre-package version??

Depends on what you mean by "work similarly", of course.  There are
four points of view: list user, list admin, site admin, and ISP tech
support.  The first two will see no change, the site admin will see
little adverse change, I suppose.  But to the ISP tech support, there
are several possible issues.

IIRC, one technical advantage of cPanel (and maybe Plesk) is that they
seamlessly handle large-scale virtual hosting.  Mailman normally has a
restriction that no two lists handled by a single installation may
have the same name, even if they are on different virtual hosts.
cPanel covers this up, not only from users and the list/site admins,
but from tech support at the hosting service as well.  This feature is
planned for a future release, but IIRC for 2.2, not in the 2.1 series.

Second, cPanel provides a single virtual host management interface.
Although any given site manager (== you) will probably not mind very
much, the ISP tech support has to worry about a significant increase
in workload (long term) from users confused by a somewhat different MI
for Mailman.

Third, any such transition imposes a (short-term) workload.  They have
to think about this as an investment.  Are the returns to them
sufficient to justify it?  They may not be, given that you're already
very satisfied with your host and unlikely to leave.

Fourth, cPanel may also provide services to the ISP (log management
and summaries, MI troubleshooting, don't-ask-me-I-don't-use-cPanel ;-)
that they will be loth to forego.

I think you should ask your provider what they think about this
issue.  Make it plain how much work you personally are willing to put
in as a liaison to Mailman development, and things like that.  They
are likely to take the position that the tradeoff they have chosen is
still the correct one, but if you can show them that exploring
alternatives will cost them very little, and that you're in it for the
long term, I can't see that they'd do anything but rejoice.