I 'd like to know: do you use a control panels? Which one and why? What is your opinion on what a control panel should be?

Can you clarify your question? Are you a reseller or a Webmaster? you want to start your Web Hosting business?

If you're a reseller, you all but must have a control panel. I used to be one, so I suppose that I qualify, although that was a year ago.

Clients want an easy to understand way to go about admining their websites and a control panel is it. You'd be stuck without one frankly.

I use Dathorn as a reseller. They have cPanel and WHT. If you don;t want to run your own server, it's the only way to go...

Control panels are a must, you dont want to have to email your tech every time you want to add an account or change something. Plesk is nice, Cpanel/whm is nice, havent tried any others.

DirectAdmin and CPanel are the only 2 control panels worth your time looking at currently .

If you are looking into starting as a reseller i would recommend cPanel, I have never use Plesk but I am sure it gets the job done too.

Another thing you are going to want to look into is a script to get your billing and accounts set up automatically. Few to chose from: www.neomanager.com (formerly phpmanager). they are a bit cheaper than the other guys, i have not used neomanager. www.whmautopilot.com works very good with cPanel/WHM, cost usually $150. And www.modernbill.com, I have never used this script but looks very nice.

Don't forget to budget in some sort of script.

(Not a reseller, was in a former life tho)