Webmin

Webmin is my personal favorite of the free control panels. I have used it for many years on servers I have set up at home to test and play with. It is easy to set up and has a great list of feature (or modules) including Apache, BIND, BSD Firewall, bandwidth monitoring, cron job manager, and many more. Beyond the standard modules included, you can download addition third party modules and develop your own if needed.

Currently there is support for many types of Unix (best option: FreeBSD), Linux (best option: Redhat), and Solaris systems. Webmin needs to be configured for each specific flavor of *nix because of file locations, but despite this restriction, there are currently 82 different operating systems supported.

Webmin uses a BSD-like license allowing for commercial and non-commercial use. "All recent versions of Webmin are under a BSD-like licence, meaning that it may be freely distributed and modified for commercial and non-commercial use" (Webmin).

Web-cp

web-cp offers security, flexibility, automation, and management tools to help you manage your servers. Some notable features include system monitoring, statistics, domain configuration, database management, email settings, file manager, and many more. There is a list of supported applications on the web-cp website including sendmail, Apache, Bind, and MySQL.

Running on *nix systems, there are currently 12 different operating systems that web-cp can run on. Multiple versions of Redhat, FedoraCore, FreeBSD, and CentOS are a few of the available options.

The license for this control panel is licensed as Open Source software under the GPL license. This license means that "anyone, anywhere can continue working on the code" (web-cp).

SysCP

SysCP includes management of mail, FTP, web space, CGI, custom error pages, statistics, DNS, and more. Within these categories of supported features, you can control popular applications such as Apache, Bind, Courier, and Proftpd.You can get full feature and supported applications lists from their website. As well as these standard application controls built into SysCP, you can download third party modules to control and manage other aspects of your server as well. Some of the third party modules include management for applications like SpamAssassin, Fetchmail, and a backup module.

You can use SysCP on five major *nix distibutions, Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, OpenSuSE, and FreeBSD. These are limited to specific versions so be sure to check what you are using versus what is supported.

SysCP is licensed as open source using the GPL. "The SysCP project was founded, to develop a free server management tool in terms of the Open Source Definition and distribute it freely under the terms of the GPL" (SysCP).

GNUPanel

GNUPanel is written in PHP5 and is intended to run on a Debian Linux system. The main features include domain management, FTP management, database administration, mail management, and much more. You can control popular applications like Apache, PHP, MySQL, Proftpd, and others. There are also some web applications available for auto installation (WordPress, Joomla, phpBB, and osCommerce).

Although you can currently only run this on Debian, there are other operating systems installations planned. Current development is focusing on language translations of the application.

The license is open source, using GPL. The website stats that "GNUPanel is a completely free (GPL)" (GNUPanel).

ISPConfig

ISPConfig offers management of services like httpd servers, FTP servers, DNS servers, mail servers, database systems, and much more. You can get a full list of features at their website. You can manage popular applications like Apache, MySQL, Proftpd, Bind, and sendmail through the control panel as well. An additional feature of ISPConfig that can be a great deal of help is the four page listing of how-to's at HowtoForge.

There are eight major Linux distributions supported including Mandrake, Fedora Core. Suse, Debian, and Ubuntu. A number of different versions are supported for each of the eight supported operating systems.

ISPConfig uses a BSD license, which allows for redistribution and copying as well as changing the source as long as the original copyright information is retained.

A traditional web server is made up of many different components, including an http server, mail server, FTP server, and more. In days gone by, a webmaster would install each software package individually to get a custom web server up and running. These kinds of server setups offer many advantages, including testing, learning, and being able to have total control over the web server environment. Today there are many different options available that bundle each component into an easy single installation package.

The installation packages are basically split into two main categories, WAMP (Windows Apache MySQL PHP) servers and LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) servers. As you can see, they are installation packages that include the Apache httpd server, the MySQL database server, and PHP installed on either a Windows machine or a Linux/Unix machine. There are many different WAMP/LAMP installation packages available that contain the 4 major components, as well as other software to make a more full featured web server. These packages can vary slightly, while meeting the general requirements for running a web server. I have listed some of the most common packages available below.

WAMP

• Apache2Triad - This package includes an incredible list of features. It installs Apache with mod_python, mod_ssl, mod_perl, OpenSSL, and AWStats, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, PostgreSQL with pgAdmin and phpPgAdmin, xmail with PHPXMail and UebiMiau, SlimFTPD with PHPsFTPd, PHP with Pear and Smarty, Perl with CPAN, and Python with Spyce and wxPython.
• XAMPP - This package installs Apache with OpenSSL, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, PHP 4 and PHP 5, FileZilla FTP server, and Mercury Mail Transport System. You can also get Perl and Tomcat as an add-on.
• WampServer 2.0 - This is the new version of the WAMP5 server. It installs Apache, MySQL with PHPMyAdmin and SQLiteManager, and PHP. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the first servers listed, but it is reliable and has the ability to install many different releases of Apache, MySQL, and PHP.
• The Uniform Server - This package installs Apache, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, and PHP. It also includes SSL capabilities, but I couldn't find what software is used.
• SpikeWAMP - This package installs Apache, MySQL, and PHP. This version also includes the ability to install popular applications like Drupal, Joomla, Moodle, phpBB, and more. There is also an update channel that allows you to download and install the new beta versions of the applications. This is a nice and easy WAMP installation package.

LAMP

• XAMPP - This package installs Apache with OpenSSL, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, PHP 4 and PHP 5, FileZilla FTP server, and Mercury Mail Transport System.
• Apache Toolbox - This package installs one of the largest bundles of applications and mods I have seen; it boasts almost 100 different modules. Some of these include Apache, MySQL, Apache, WebDAV, OpenLDAP, and gd libraries. Take a look at the website to get the full listing.
• BitRock - This package is based on the BitNami stacks and installs Apache, MySQL with phpMyAdmin, and PHP. There are also some popular applications available for easy installation with BitRock, like phpBB, WordPress, Joomla, and Subversion just to name a few.

What LAMP/WAMP server do you use? Or do you set up all the pieces separately? Let us know in the comments.