Which control panel, distro and MTA?

[Paul Welsh]

It's new server time again.  I'm currently running RH9 with the 42go control
panel and Sendmail.  I run SpamAssassin as well as MailScanner.  I'm happy
enough with this configuration but Progeny have stopped supplying patches
for RH9 and my server can't cope with the traffic (a faster server will cure
this).

I want to accomplish the move to a new server in the least possible length
of time.  I want the server to last around 3 years before I have to upgrade
the OS.  I'm therefore inclined to go for CentOS.  My second choice would be
Debian.  In terms of MTA I'm happy with Sendmail and would really prefer to
stick with it, rather than have to learn Postfix or Exim.  From what I can
see, RHEL 4 (and therefore CentOS 4) uses Sendmail by default, which suits
me well.  Debian, it seems, uses Exim4 by default.

The 42go control panel is, apparently, very slow to write changes but I can
live with this.  I'm familiar with it and it doesn't interfere with
MailScanner or SpamAssassin.  So, I either stick with 42go or move to
DirectAdmin or another control panel.  DirectAdmin uses Exim4 as its MTA
and, from reading the DirectAdmin forum, it seems there's a fair bit of
fiddling about to get MailScanner working on it.  On the other hand, if
DirectAdmin will save me time in other ways then I'll consider it.

Advice and comments appreciated.