Just wondering how long this community will last before going commercial like Trixbox or AH@home. Just curious.
Trixbox AND AH@home are more or less run by the same gang. So its not like everyone is running commercializing everything.
I don’t think you meant it but just to assure there is NO confusion, Trixbox/AAH have “nothing to do” with FreePBX other than the fact that they happen to use FreePBX in their product (which means they are 95% FreePBX…). We talk to them every now and then but that’s about it.
As far as how long till FreePBX goes commercial? And comparing the poject, you should look carefully at Trixbox and FreePBX from an Open Source project perspective. How much real contribution do you see coming into one vs. the other? Which ones have real and open bug tracking (with thousands of items), a publically viewable changelog, openly discusses designs, decisions, etc. These are all things to look at the gauge an Open Source project’s true “openness.”
Having a commercial component is not the issue and in fact is healthy for a project. The real question - is it really a community project or not. The questions above help evaluate any project.
hi
i know that freepbx & tb/aah are not related.
going commercial helps generate revenue, keeps the programmers paid & i understand that.
Although i question what exactly tb is going to give back
It is like “microsoft’s” open source?
What are the long term goals of freepbx?
thank you for your input
kieranmullen
Long term goals? World Domination !!! :twisted:
Nah, I’ve no idea what the long term goal is, but I rather suspect that it’s “To be the very best it can possibly be” and that’s about it. It is possible to want something to be the best just to make it the best, with no desire to make it commercial.
FreePBX is already large, and getting larger. Any of the lead developers can use this to their advantage when it comes to making money. Just imaging the job interview…
- So what do you currently do?
- Well, I’m a lead developer on this little thing called FreePBX.
- Really, we use that here… youre hired!
The success of an open project can be leveraged commercially without any direct impact on the open project; I dont see FreePBX closing its source any time soon, if ever.
closing source defeats the purpose of Open Source, you don’t leverage the wide diversity of the open source world.
Coming up with ‘supporting’ closed source or dual licensed products as part of a commercial strategy that contribute to or add on top of the Open Source are reasonable approaches in making money and keeping the values of the Open Source model. Coming up with services, support, etc. do the same thing.
With Trixbox launching it’s Pro edition will that in any way impact the development of Freepbx as it seems trixbox is not using Freepbx as it’s GUI for their new edition. Do you agree if I say they are One Step ahead…Just discussions fellas. No Flames Please
I don’t think there is any ahead or behind. They are different. For starters, their product is not Open Source. (The ISO they send you does not contain much - all their IP is the PBXtra software that is on their servers, which is closed source.) To some that matters, to others it doesn’t. It’s also a very different model. Go read up on it, they are providing plenty of documentation I suspect.
As far as functionality, I suspect there is stuff they will do better and there will be stuff we do better. The products will have some overlap and a lot of room for different markets as well. Beyond that - you will have to make your own evaluations as to what fits what needs.
I think the most important thing here is that there is a huge PBX market that is barely tapped. I believe it is well over $100B annually. Of that market, there is this tiny sliver that is being addressed by the ‘Asterisk/Open Source’ world. It’s the likes of Nortel, Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft, etc. that are the real ‘competition’ here. Not the Fonality, AsteriskNOW, and other variants.
I realize no one said ‘competition’ in this thread (I don’t think) but when these discussions get going, they can start sounding like that. The bottom line is that the more solutions we can bring to fit different market needs and take business from the real installed base, the more successful we will all be.
Where does freepbx stand in relation to asterisk developing its own GUI asterisknow? It might be lacking the featureset right now, but they have the funding to develop this further and use in its own standalone hardware.
How does freepbx plan to be different? What are the long term goals?
I think something that would be great would be to have an easier way to customize the interface to remove freepbx from the screen so it could be deployed to end users.
You will agree with me that there are some nice features in TrixboxPro edition that will be very useful when included in the freepbx as a module. The feature I am talking about is Linking 2 Servers together which I thought is a very cool feature. It is not like borrowing from them, as it is a known entry that is out there. Employing inovative strategies to open source development is very vital to accomplishing goals and staying ahead.
RE Customization - I meant more of a background color changes etc.
I didnt mean to imply one was limited from doing this. Since it is open source anyone is free to change the code. Although having an interface to do this is nice too. -)
REMultiple Servers together
People do this all the time and use ENUM or DUNDI correct?
KM
Yup - it has been on the list for some time now. It is all a matter of priorities and getting more people involved with the project since there is way too much to do for the currently small dev team we have. We are taking a lot of measures behind the scenes so that we can make it easier for new developers to get involved since today it suffers from a common Achilles heel of developers - scattered and un-organized documentation making it hard for a new developer to come to speed.
Yup - it has been on the list for some time now. It is all a matter of priorities and getting more people involved with the project since there is way too much to do for the currently small dev team we have. We are taking a lot of measures behind the scenes so that we can make it easier for new developers to get involved since today it suffers from a common Achilles heel of developers - scattered and un-organized documentation making it hard for a new developer to come to speed.[/quote]
I’m confused. You can link 2 servers now with an IAX trunk. How is this different?
What (I think) they are talking about is a module with a gui specifically for DUNDI or IAX2 trunking. Right now we just make trunk A speak to trunk B. Seemingly a tough thing for some.
"I’m confused. You can link 2 servers now with an IAX trunk. How is this different?"mustardman
I am thinking more of a corporate setup where you have different branches spread out remotely not the VSP type of trunk. Making all servers to be connected via IAX2 protocol utilizing a feature in the GUI. Office A can call extensions located in office B. A feature that Trixbox Pro implemented. Showing both entries or more in the interface. Please correct me if I am wrong. Just a rookie
Yes you can use FREEPBX to create interoffice trunks using SIP / IAX the same as the PRO version is doing.
You will not much “NEW” in the pro version and in fact there are LESS features in the TB Pro then the CE build with Freepbx.
Pro and the older TB / AAH and the like are just not for the same “target” market, they all serve the PBX market just at different levels.
Pro would be for the Reseller / Part time PBX installers.
For the most part you still is the same folks installing from bare metal
It will be those who do not have the time or the skills to "roll their own"
or who just want to make a few bucks in income without much effort on thier part.
Pro has many good / bad parts about it, but in the long it will find a much smaller user base than a custom built box.
Now once the TB / Fon team get’s down to get and creates a “PBX a la carte” via a web based app and they allow us to pick and chose what we wish to install and it builds the install script from that.
When they get that they will have the market just about cornered for VOIP PBX builders.
The pro edition sucess depends on 100% availability of the internet. Like you said it has its advantages and disadvantages. At the end I think they will have to strike it out. To be a successful reseller you must have to have some knowledge about all the features and modules that Asterisk and Freepbx offers and at the same time troubleshooting issues that may arise instantly. Woops internet is down and Fonality’s phones are busy…damn you are fired.
Depends on what you call "successful reseller"
Some folks are making money but ticking off customers (souring the market for the rest of us).
I see WAY too many folks out there selling a VOIP / Asterisk solution who are VERY clueless, and really have no idea what they are doing and end up getting a half million dollar contract, and then saying…
OOPS…
GEE it worked in the lab, this real life gig is a little harder.
I have seen where folks have spent 1,000.00’s of dollars on gear only to “Discover” that “the system does not do X, Y and Z like the old PBX did”
Jerk it out and put in the old system
I had one fellow almost crying over the fact if he could get the phones to play music from some Musax system when not in use; he was going to have to replace the system with the old one and eat his mistake.
This is a basic feature and things like this (SLA / BLF) are missing by many reseller’s when they are pushing a VOIP / Asterisk solution.
This not really a vaild argument…
…Woops internet is down and Fonality’s phones are busy…damn you are fired…
As a PRO I would not sell a customer on some home cable / dsl account a PRO box.
My T-1 and aboves do not go down, (99999 up time) and as any PRO would not be using VOIP as a primary line, the INET going down would do nothing for any PRO system I install.
I really do not see many end users getting into the gui to make changes, I have boxes that have been in use for YEARS without the customer even know how to log in, that is what I get paid for.
And as all the inet going down does is stop the remote gui, any PRO would be able to ssh into the box and make any changes needed (it is just asterisk) and reload the config files…once the inet comes up you go into the GUI and make the chnages there click submit and you are good to go.
Pro is not for many but it will appeal too some folks once they really look at TOC / ROI
Are you saying that there are no reliable VSPs out there that are 99.99% of uptime? I understand the fall back in case of the unforeseen, but my point is why the hassles when if all the config files are hosted locally could solve the headache and save the time. Agree that customers do not touch their Asterisk box but what if there is an urgent request? Again what is the price of T1 when the purpose of VOIP implementation is to save the customer some bucks say up to 50%. That is why you were able to sell in the first place.
Savings!!! we are talking about small business or in some cases enterprise grade when the bandwidth is there. I think the whole technology about VOIP implementation is to do away hopefully with the traditional telephone system due to costs…which I believe VOIP is still in its infancy level when it comes to reliability. Hope I am correct.