Month without control panel, pure CLI

So I decided to try something dumb

My host at Contabo raised prices again and I thought, well, I dont really use the control panel much anyway. What if I just... didnt. For one month. Pure CLI, no web interface, no clicking.

I run two small wordpress sites and a email server for my shop. I know basic ssh from following guides but always had cpanel to fall back on.

First week was awful. I broke email twice trying to add a mailbox. Had to restore from backup because I deleted wrong folder, sorry for the silly question but is there no trash in linux?

But week three something clicked. Restarting nginx was `sudo systemctl restart nginx` instead of five clicks and two loading screens. Adding a subdomain took 30 seconds in vim instead of hunting through menus.

Still would not recommend for everyone. I missed the file manager for uploading images. But I understand my server now, actually understand it.

Anyone else tried this? Was I just lucky not to destroy everything?

Tried similar in my country with cheap kvm from OVHcloud. No control panel, only serial console.

First time setup took 3 hours. After that, faster than any panel for updates and checks.

What editor you use? nano or vim? In my country most tutorials use nano, I switched to vim after two weeks.

This is insane value for learning!

I run Ampere Altra at home, 80 cores, and honestly managing it through SSH feels faster than any web panel I've tried. The thing runs circles around my old x86 box for compilation tasks, and with pure CLI I'm not wasting RAM on a browser tab for management!

Did you try any monitoring tools? htop is great but I love `btm` for a pretty TUI. Uses like 5MB vs hundreds for typical panels.

The file manager thing — have you tried `ranger`? It's not clicky but feels close once you learn the keys.

My box is on InterServer, no panel from start xd
This was scary but I learn fast, this is just linux after all

I swap b and v in my head still, "srever" I type always, but bash dont care

One thing, backups, I have script now, this runs every day, I test restore once per month

For silly question, no trash in linux, rm is rm, this is feature not bug xd

Month without panel is just called using a computer properly ~

The real challenge is year without systemd but thats another thread arch btw

Seriously though panels exist because hosts want to upsell you on features you dont need and lock you into their migration path, once you know cli you realize most of what cpanel does is generate config files you could write yourself in less time than the page loads

Wilmaethqn44 you didnt destroy everything because you were careful and you read errors, thats the actual skill not the commands