a new developing from scratch?

Hi all,

After about 18 months, I'm back to this list, supposedly for some 
long period.

We're in process of thinking about a hosting solution for our customers.
This includes standard shared hosting services, like domains, mail, web, 
resellers, databases etc., with full automation of all account and domain 
creation and maintenance (so that the girls at the helpdesk do that all, 
and admins drink more beer).

What I don't like in Ispman is its code design. The concept of LDAP 
database and distributed services is beautiful, but the implementation
and its support is a pain in the neck.

What I don't like in Plesk or Ensim.... I don't exactly know, will look deeper 
after my vacation. Anyway, it's not OpenSource, and bound to a limited 
set of platforms. For example, Plesk deployment would mean throwing our 
Sun SPARC boxes out the window.

But! 
I can start a new development. I did it once already when Cricket 
wasn't good enough for me, and I've developed http://torrus.org

The dreamy Ispman-II would be nicely designed with one idea in mind:
flexibility and extendability. The core engine which is not bound to any 
specific task or platform, the pluggable drivers for different server software,

interfaces for plugins everywhere, nice installer, good user and developer
documentation, fast web interface,...

Of course, this would require funding, and that's the most problematic 
task. Who might be interested in funding the new development?
Let's say, 6 months full time, plus some support and maintenance costs 
afterwards. The outcome would be a rock-solid GNU GPL licensed package,
designed for any small-to-large hosting service provider. Many ideas and 
maybe pieces of code inherited from Ispman. Migration utilities 
for Ispman, Plesk, Ensim, who knows what...


What do you think? Am I dreaming too much, or it sounds like a realistic plan?

I'm off for vacation, will be back after 16th.

Cheers,
Stan



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