If you haven’t heard, FreeSwitch is now available for download. For an excellent comparison with Asterisk, see this link. For quick and dirty install instructions on your existing (non-production!) Asterisk server, go here after issuing amportal stop. The only piece that’s missing is FreePBX!!!
In light of recent developments, I would not want to get involved. Seems a bit like a deal with the devil.
Long time coming. Devil, certainly not. someone has lit the fuse and in August the long awaited tale will be told.
deals with the devil, long-time coming, etc… if you folks have something to say, please say it instead of making these mysterious comments…
I think there are some interesting things in the works but they are not ready to go public with it yet. We will just have to be patient.
I was referring to the trixbox thread that Ward mentioned. Specifically, one of Kerry’s bits:
[/quote]“Gosh darn it I know how hard you want to keep flaming me but our intention is to make the trixbox project better and if we can contribute to specific things that we think have value even if it means that code gets put into FreePBX for everyone to use then it is still worth it to us. We have things we want to do that do not always benefit the entire FreePBX user base and those things we will do.”[/quote]
Working with people (or organizations) that take and do not give back are like a deal with the devil.
As far a Freeswitch goes… I don’t know to much about it. Seems interesting. I have it downloaded and will have a look see soon.
Clear enough?
there’s a lot of context/history you (and others) are privy to, and reading that one thread of kerry’s didn’t leave me significantly wiser. i doubt i’m unique in this respect. if you have a simple complaint (50 words or less) it would be helpful to state explicitly what it is…
I guess what scares me a bit is that persons will make comments about things they have no knowledge of. Then these start an avalanche of conversations of unfounded accusations, IMHO belong in dev/null. What we should be discussing is how these type of developments will help excel the OS movement and clap happily for those putting in long and exhausting hours instead of hacking servers.
The developers of Freeswitch have contributed a lot of time and energy into VoIP in general. Please oh please help keep OS alive and educate yourselves prior to making any comment.
KEEP HOPE ALIVE!
Is there really that much mystery? The long and short of it is that Fonality’s priority is to their own bottom line and not the community. That would be fine (to me) except that they take it as far as to benefit their bottom line at the expense of the community. A subtle, but very important, difference.
I have a laundry list of complaints and examples, but the simple fact that they are providing development resources to their own fork of FreePBX (which so far appears to be mostly branding – ie, eradicating the “FreePBX” logo) instead of committing those development resources to clearing out the bug tracker here speaks volumes about their priorities. Their dedication is to the trixbox line of products, not the Asterisk, FreePBX or general FOSS telephony communities as a whole.
Again, I want to make it clear that they are “allowed” to do this. There is nothing in the GPL that prevents them from doing so, but that doesn’t make it the right thing to do, and it is certainly not in the spirit of Free Software.
However, even beyond this, certain people at Fonality seem to keep perpetuating myths about the development of FreePBX in order to further their own agenda. This is called spreading “FUD,” which is fear, uncertainty and doubt. They also are employing “astroturfing” which is pretending to be “grass roots” members of a community in an attempt to sway opinion in their favor. Both of these techniques have been used by companies like Microsoft for similar purposes, and are (again, in my opinion) abhorrent.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt for a long time, but I can’t pretend anymore that I’m misinterpreting their actions, and I’m convinced now that they are deliberate and part of a strategy to embrace, extend and extinguish community driven efforts. This is a pattern you see a lot when MBA types get wind of FOSS.
Sorry that that’s more than 50 words. Just read the first paragraph.
I am sorry if I mislead the discussion but I was speaking to the original topic, not the commercial aspects of VoIP development. Though to speak off topic, I do agree with the above statement.
What I was unaware of was who was perceived as the bad actor here (e.g. fonality). This is the context/history I was referrring to. You really don’t need to assume I’m unaware of the definitions of FUD or astroturfing, it makes you look like a patronizing jerk.
The vast majority of people that I’ve run into WRT FOSS telephony are unfamiliar with terminology similar to that. I’m sorry to have offended you, but I try to be as clear as possible so that everyone understands. I’m certainly not trying to be patronizing.
And I’m not a jerk.
but you really shouldn’t assume that people hanging out here have no experience anywhere else in the software business. neither of these terms is particularly obscure nowadays 
I really don’t want to further this derail, but the direct audience isn’t necessarily all of the audience, you know? I’m concerned about the people not logged in who are trying to get more information about what’s going on.
Much as you were concerned about not being privy to private conversations and whatnot, I don’t want a newbie to be confused by terms that may be second nature to everyone else. This is a public forum, so I try to tailor what I’m writing to that.
Or maybe I’ve been spending too much time at the trixbox forums.
all,
let’s all remember that posts on a forum may be a directed response to a specific individual on a thread of conversation, but many who write posts do so with the expectations that thousands of uninvolved readers will be looking at the post and many of those may not have English as their native languages. I don’t want to speak for Kodak but suspect that is the case when I read posts like his. I suspect there are thousands of readers that chance on this site that are very unfamiliar with many of the terms we use.
If you take the time to read the last 50 posts you will see that almost 2/3 of them are newbie posts.
If I found a new site I would start reading the forums to gauge the responses to question and see what is asked and answered. So I have to agree that it was not intended to be a insult in any way but honest attempt to help educate those people.
given the wide range of technical knowledge, it’s impossible to tailor a response that is suitable for everyone. i would contend that rather than assuming that everyone who reads a response i made to a specific person is a newbie, i’d rather respond at the level i think the person i’m responding to is at. i’m not a newbie and that should be obvious from my info. furthermore, if folks were really that concerned about newbies understanding their posts, the cryptic posts (which turned out to be critical of fonality) were not well-considered. i don’t think i was that thin-skinned to be irritated at a response which apparently assumed i knew nothing and ended with ‘Clear enough?’
I’m taking it to PMs because if there is anything less important than this diversion it’s another post regarding this diversion.
Including this one.
You are very mistaking about the spirit of free software. From our point of view they are not doing anything wrong, nor even unethical. Please refer to the following page:
http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html
Specifically the following points:
“A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms. Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere. Being free to do these things means (among other things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission.”
“You should also have the freedom to make modifications and use them privately in your own work or play, without even mentioning that they exist. If you do publish your changes, you should not be required to notify anyone in particular, or in any particular way.”
While this may not be YOUR spirit of free software, it is the commonly accepted spirit of free software. Open source and free software developers often develop egos about their code and that is totally understandable but they began their projects usually with the free and open attitude that is embodied by the FSF but sometimes move away from that as their projects become successful or when they attempt to monetize their projects and a fear of someone cutting into their profits is looming. You are either open and free or you aren’t and many of the attitudes displayed in this thread and the similair threads at the trixbox website are most certainly not in the spirit of open and free, they are often defending the position of someone else being “evil” for doing exactly what the FSF believes is a given right and is not unethical.