review virtualmin theme

Recently, I was dumbfounded from @VirtualMin tweet that Authentic theme is inbuilt in VirtualMin 1.75 and above. Being a WebMin and VirtualMin user since a long time, I should have known this. Happens!

So, I decided to give it a try and review it.

Authentic Theme for VirtualMin Review

Authentic is very clean and amazingly beautiful theme developed by Ilia Rostovtsev.

The login screen alone won me.

review authentic theme
Authentic Login

After login the VirtualMin took some time to load. Subsequent page changes were also little slower than I remember in base theme. It should be noted that this might hit performance on a less powerful server of 256 MB or less. So, I tested also on 1 GB VPS.

Loading screen
Loading screen

The moment you login, a completely redesigned sidebar will catch your eye. It is so amazing that I was playing with it for a while. Amazingly written JSON seems to be really working for this theme.

review authentic theme
Redesigned Sidebar Authentic theme

I always hated VirtualMin and WebMin search. You have to type, enter and then wait for search page. Search is now a quick search bar. Type and see results. Will come very very handy.

review authentic theme
Quick search in Authentic Theme

The resource information shows system health at a glance. It shows color as per the usage. Green for OK and Red for heavily used.

Quick System Information Authentic VirtualMin
Quick Resource Information Authentic VirtualMin

The system information comes up next and has all same parameters as in base VirtualMin theme. However, I didn’t like one thing. The Available and Used resources are now interchanged.

 

System information and limits
System information and limits

Package update information works fine and is without a bug. Many times, in older WebMin versions, control panel just kept displaying update even after update was completed. Here it reloads and it’s gone. +1 for this.

services-status-authentic-virtualmin

No more pop-ups for Help text. Just click on option and keep mouse idle for a second to get the help dialog.

Help is easily available without pop-up
Help is easily available without pop-up

Icons are completely redesigned and more visible than ever. It has definitely increased readability and identification visibility. The less known “Module Config buttons” are hard to miss now.

Beautiful icons and more readable text
Beautiful icons and more readable text

The addition of favorite button and quick access from sidebar makes VirtualMin even more useful and productive. Just click on Favorite button on any module and then you can select it from sidebar to get a pop-up of saved favorites. It’s speedy and it navigates properly. Sweet!

Authentic theme favorite button
Click to add to favorite

 

Sidebar Shortcut
Sidebar Shortcut

 

Full screen Transparent Favorite Pop-up
Full screen Transparent Favorite Pop-up

Since, FileMin is now included by default it was nice to see it’s fresh GUI and drop down buttons.

FileMin in Authentic
FileMin in Authentic

At last but not least (ohh, I hate this sentence), the resource usage by this theme. It seems to run smoothly but can be an issue when executing some critical things like Creating Server. Resource usage was hiked and server became unresponsive for a while.  This may be due to animations and used scripts. So, a low end box of 256 MB and less is not recommended for any visual themes like this.

Other tested features in short:
  • Theme options are configurable using Webmin UI. Keep the color you want.
  • Works amazing on Mobile and Tablets.
  • Autocomplete works and makes life easier.
  • Hotkeys available for quick access
  • Coding is now better due to highlighting and FileMin.
  • Fully Customizable for your organization. Change logos, styles etc.
  • Better support for ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF) modules
Requirements
  • Webmin 1.730+ (required), Usermin 1.640+ (optional), Virtualmin 4.14+ (optional), Cloudmin 8.01+ (optional)
  • Recommended RAM – 512 MB (My opinion)
My final recommendation?

Authentic is really amazing theme with smooth navigation and added features. The availability at GitHub makes it more dependable as the project is contributed by many people. Ilia Rostovtsev and contributors have done marvelous job on this. However, I will only recommend this to be used on server with at least 512 MB RAM and good CPU.

Back to you, what you think about the review and using this theme?

Disclaimer: This review has no affiliation to VirtualMin or Authentic. However, the testing was done on impressively fast GoDaddy VPS.

By Mrinal Buddekar

Data Manager and a technology enthusiast! Mrinal Buddekar is Pune based blogger who loves building server, websites, technology, and affiliate blogging.

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