Anyone see the latest Digium news?
Submitted by agit8or on Thu, 09/27/2007 - 9:00am.
This is great news for the
Thu, 09/27/2007 - 9:34am
Switchvox validates PBXtra/trixpro? Don't think so...
Fri, 09/28/2007 - 5:16pm
Hey Kerry, I enjoyed meeting you face to face at Astricon 2007 in Phoenix -- thanks for coming!
Switchvox is today a closed-source extension of Asterisk, but Digium has been clear in each announcement that it will NOT remain proprietary: the community will benefit from the technology that makes Switchvox a compelling small-business PBX.
See:
http://www.8774e4voip.com/blog/2007/09/digium-acquires-switchvox-...
http://www.digium.com/en/company/switchvox-acquisition-faq.php
Truly, I'm looking forward to seeing how quickly trixbox fans and integrators adopt the power of Switchvox once it's readily available to them. Ever wondered how great HUD would become if the community could contribute?
The Switchvox acquisition is evidence that Digium continues to invest in the expansion of Asterisk into SMB, but within a context and culture of openness, collaboration, and community. We're building a community-inclusive model to take on the fat, lethargic telephony incumbents as well as outperform the closed-source software approach to unified communications that's on the horizon. This market is much too big to win with a mine-all-mine proprietary mentality. So, I respectfully disagree: with the acquisition of Switchvox, we at Digium are headed down a different path than the Fonality model.
Rod Montgomery
Director of Services, Digium
http://digium.com // http://blogs.digium.com
Folks, I know conflict makes
Fri, 09/28/2007 - 10:20pm
Folks, I know conflict makes a good story, but I didn't write the post to be a slap at Kerry. I respect Fonality as a competitor within the Asterisk space. I felt it was important to point out that Digium believes open is better, and that we're "walking the talk" with this acquisition.
I think we should discourage infighting within the Asterisk community and focus on the vast market at hand. We're both growing quickly -- and using different paths as I described above -- so there should be plenty of legacy customers for all of us without stomping on each other. Let's draw clear distinctions so customers understand the business models for which they're signing up, let healthy competition do the work of improving quality and lowering prices, and go convert as many as we can to Asterisk-based solutions.
All the best,
rm
When I questions Mark and
Sat, 09/29/2007 - 11:31am
When I questions Mark and Bill they said "certain Asterisk components of Switchvox would be coimmitted back into the open source project" but would not answer exactly what nor hint it had anything to do with the interface. Only time will tell.
But back to the issue at hand, this was a great move for Digium and certainly for SwitchVox. This says that Digium understands that a good GUI is important for Asterisk to succeed in the market and that means what we have been doing all along is the right direction. Between Fonality and Digium now, there are now several brand name products for people to choose from. Fonality's enemy is not Digium, its Microsoft, Avaya, Nortel, Shoretel, Mitel, 3Com, etc.
"Community" isn't a one-way street
Sun, 09/30/2007 - 3:22pm
Kerry -- You're right that we have much bigger competitors in common, which is where our focus should collectively be. And yes, Asterisk's ease of use is definitely a factor in mass adoption. So in that sense, any GUI for Asterisk was headed in the right direction. With all due respect, we believe we just bought the best one.
BTW, I'm glad to read that you don't consider Digium your enemy. It'd be great to regain Fonality as a hardware component customer. With new board designs and echo cancellers, our interfaces have been updated to outperform all others on the market. Yes, the mythic "Digium IRQ trouble" is now a fading memory. They're quieter and faster than alternatives, too. We've even run a Digium TE120P on the Dell SC420! I'd be happy to send you samples to evaluate in your own labs; Trixbox Appliance customers deserve better. =]
Andrew -- Switchvox is tightly integrated into Asterisk, not simply a configuration GUI sitting atop the config files that could be chosen in the trixbox package manager. Answers to other questions are addressed in the Switchvox acquisition FAQ, which says, "Digium's plan is to take selected elements of the Switchvox solution and contribute them back to the open source community to enhance Asterisk as well as migrate Asterisk features forward into Switchvox."
Guys, we publish the source for software, not for business strategy! Until Digium's acquisition transition plan is fully executed, Switchvox will continue to operate normally, just as a subsidiary of Digium. We're only getting started! Rest assured Digium will continue to release source code regardless of what Fonality chooses to do. We're proud that Asterisk has been the engine powering Fonality's success, but the Asterisk community isn't a one-way street.
rm
Right On! Nice to see some Digium folks here!
Sun, 09/30/2007 - 3:41pm
Also glad to hear about switching to better interfaces for your Telephony Hardware - I was burned on incompatible hardware (I am stuck with 4 TE110p's which won't run in our standard box, an SC-440, or our high-end box, the PE-840) so this is good. I would really like to support Digium in their efforts for Asterisk by buying their hardware.
Turn away from the closed-source model - Software-As-A-Service is where this industry is going - I have said many times that I would be happy to pay for open source software if it stayed open - I am looking for support, NOT lock in. I will be evaluating a Switchvox system this week to get familiar with it.
Nice zinger on Kerry too!
Greg
Everyone has to be a little
Sun, 09/30/2007 - 5:10pm
Everyone has to be a little careful here, with myself and many Digium and SwitchVox employees there is certainly some friendly teasing back and forth. I have never had a bad word to say about the SwitchVox interface, it works well and has great features, I just didn't like the price. SwitchVox deserves to get more attention and pick up more market share and with the Digium name behind them, they will certainly get more customers even if the interface is never made open source.
What I do not want to see happen here is the debate about contributing code back to the community. Digium has issues with us not giving them code and we have issues with their dual licensing model, let's leave it at.
As for the cards, I can't wait to get the new cards into my lab and start testing them. I am VERY excited that they claim to have solved the IRQ and reliability issues.
Member Since:
2006-05-31