Tony Posted November 13, 2009 Report Share Posted November 13, 2009 This might more apply to resellers but would anyone like to see Softaculous or Installatron on our servers? I'm asking because I realize Fantastico is well not very great these days. Updates take weeks to come out even for security updates and the script library is pretty much a joke. So would anyone like to see either of those as an alternative or even a replacement to Fantastico? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyDiana Posted November 14, 2009 Report Share Posted November 14, 2009 Yes, of course! Great idea! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermartin75 Posted November 14, 2009 Report Share Posted November 14, 2009 I'd like to see Softaculous added. Offers many more scripts than Installatron and I'm not that fond of Installatron either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Posted December 5, 2009 Report Share Posted December 5, 2009 Hey guys have you checked out http://simplescripts.com/ ? it's a great autoinstaler and the fastest on aplying updates. I have been using it for some time now and I can say it's quite stable, works great with cpanel and it makes quite easy to keep track of your instalations and to apply upgraeds. Hope you can consider it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunwitch Posted December 6, 2009 Report Share Posted December 6, 2009 This might more apply to resellers but would anyone like to see Softaculous or Installatron on our servers? ... I'm unsure about licensing details of these scripts, but I think that HH pays some money for using them. As for me, I'd prefer not to have any of such auto installer scripts, but get a bit cheaper service instead (actually your prices are already very good ). I never use anything like this, cause I prefer to control everything by myself. Also, modern scripts are user-friendly (and getting easier all the time), so I don't think that many of your customers will use any of these script packages. P.S. I completely understand that not all of your clients are techically-minded, so maybe it's better to offer auto installers on some servers, while keeping others for more geekish persons P.P.S. Also I think that making some servers "less supported" and offering them to IT people at discounted price isn't bad idea at all - you can get more clients, but save on customer support and server management (due to lower amount of installed apps). But currently this is just an idea which needs to be tested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted December 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 6, 2009 Well these scripts have costs of like $24/yr. So we're talking about such a small amount it's like saying each customer costs an extra $0.01/yr. For not having it installed it's more work for us and more costly to not have all the same software on all machines. As far as the other suggestion about discounts for less technical help. The problem with that concept is people who require less help are who partly pay for the support for others. We could not offer the prices if suddenly clients opted to pay less and get no support. It's the same idea about space and bandwidth where users using only 100MB of space help pay for people using a full allocation. Plus I imagine most users who would opt for such a service would end up asking for support anyways. Most users say they do not need help then make tickets anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistermartin75 Posted December 7, 2009 Report Share Posted December 7, 2009 I agree with Tony. I for instance thought I would hardly need support, but in the end, you need it more often than you think. These installers are very good for "less technical" people, even though there are downsides to them. They just offer a good way to easily install a bunch of software without having to fiddle with config files, database passwords, and installations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mocollin Posted December 22, 2009 Report Share Posted December 22, 2009 I'd like to see Softaculous added. Offers many more scripts than Installatron and I'm not that fond of Installatron either. I'm throwing my hat in for Softaculous. The sooner this is available the better. Fantastico is a relic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedturtle Posted December 28, 2009 Report Share Posted December 28, 2009 (edited) Fantastico is a relic. lol, that is so apt! I couldn't have put it any better. Good to know that Hawk Host is considering other auto installers to replace Fantastico. Like many, I was impressed by the list of scripts that Softaculous can auto-install but as I delve deeper, I found that people experienced a lot of problems using it, e.g. blank databases created, security issues, wrong permissions, manual installs work but auto-installs don't, etc. Scripts are very quickly added to Softaculous more for show than making the scripts work. An irresponsible development team usually leaves much of the testing to their endusers. It is true no software is perfect but one can usually tell how little testing is done by the blatant errors discovered. Softaculous Admin Demo: - information on installed application script is very brief, barely any info at all - just shows the directory where it is installed and its version number. No database info which I think should be available. - clicked on Updates icon on the top menu. After the updates, whatever menu option I clicked on display a 403/404 error. Subsequently I was unable to return to the Admin Demo as it displays 403 & 404 errors as well. It was not a good experience for me. Installatron Demo: - functions worked as it should - no errors nor unpleasant surprises - although more steps, they do help to provide structure and organization which is a good thing - allows installation of scripts with earlier releases I prefer Installatron for the following reasons: - better design and workflow - options to backup and restore a web application's data. Can select which files/tables to be restored - PHP Safe Mode and PHP Register Globals can be set on a per-install basis - more stable and reliable - brandable Installatron's features list are detailed and more thorough compared to the superficial coverage of the few features in Softaculous. It is quite obvious that more thought has been given to Installatron's design than that of Softaculous. Softaculous' selling points are its support for 100+ scripts but do we really need all of that? Non-techies tend to go with the most popular scripts. Techies are the ones likely to explore and most of the time, they can do manual installs easily. As for demos/ratings/reviews, once again these features are nice to have but adds no value to the basic function of an auto-installer or to the workflow. I see these features as a lot of hype with very little value. Anyways, it would be a good idea to initially have both Fantastico and Installatron/Softaculous (whichever HH finally decides on) available and gradually face out Fantastico. This will give the Fantastico diehards (if any) some time to get comfortable using a new auto installer. Edited December 29, 2009 by speedturtle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlesM Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 So would anyone like to see either of those as an alternative or even a replacement to Fantastico? Yes. I tried to respond with just a simple, "Yes," but the forum software restrictions won't allow that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted January 18, 2010 Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 My former reseller host offered all 3, I played with them all but found Softaculous to be my favorite. I believe Softaculous also offers WHMCS? Is this an option HawkHost is looking into? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 22, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 22, 2010 It's been decided Softaculous is what we're going to be using. There should be more details available soon and looking at it being on all our servers for the start of February. Fantastico has just drove us insane long enough so figured it was time to pick a replacement Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2010 If you check your cPanel's you might find a new link on it :-) Official announcement probably Monday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted January 27, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2010 It's official: http://forums.hawkhost.com/showthread.php?t=822 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbell Posted February 9, 2010 Report Share Posted February 9, 2010 Are there any issues moving from a Fantastico-installed phplist to Softaculous? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 9, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2010 Are there any issues moving from a Fantastico-installed phplist to Softaculous? There should not be an issue Softaculous includes a feature to import Fantastico installed scripts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted February 17, 2010 Report Share Posted February 17, 2010 Its great to see a host which listens to their clients. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody R. Posted February 18, 2010 Report Share Posted February 18, 2010 Its great to see a host which listens to their clients. Thanks for the compliment! Needless to say it looks like they made the right choice. I've personally used it several times and have had several existing customers praise it over Fantastico for both selections as well as the scripts are more up-to-date. Kudos ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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