Standard GUI way to manage services
 

I want to manage services (such as the DNS server BIND (named) that is running on this 9.10 desktop) via a GUI if that is available (at least to know how). I can always just go change it in the /etc files myself, although if some GUI app is "the official way" it might be better to do it that way to be sure it can understand what has been changed.

Right now, I want to have BIND/named not started (and then start something else in its place). But I don't want to just uninstall it to achieve that.

Just how much of an Ubuntu system can be managed via GUI?

You can install rcconf, and run it from the command line to enable/disable services at boot
Doesn't the control center has a GUI to start/stop services?

Depends on what you mean by "the control center". Where do I find that? I don't see it under System > Administration or System > Preferences.

if you use gnome
system => control center