[Freeswitch-users] FreeSWITCH

[Michael Collins]

Hi Craig,

I see that some others have chimed in as well, but as the official
FreeSWITCH "community guy" I thought it might be good for me to say a few
things.

First off, welcome! We are glad you are investigating FreeSWITCH as a
potential use candidate. We highly recommend that any prospective FS user
do his or her due diligence. This is one area where we can all agree that
OSS is awesome - you get to download it for free and take it for a test
drive with no limitations.

As far as adoption rates go, please understand that the FreeSWITCH devs are
not at all concerned with how many people are using it. We don't have
Digium's marketing department, nor do we need it. I think our marketing can
be summed up by looking at the first result from this google query:
http://www.google.com/#h&q=asterisk+alternative

The FS devs have a mantra: use what works for you. Specifically, use the
right tool for your application/scenario/problem. Many people download
trixbox or piaf and color it done. We have no problem with that. If those
tools work for you then great. However, it has been our experience that a
steady stream of Asterisk "refugees" have come over to FS because of
situations similar to yours: "frustrations with Asterisk." (If you read
Appendix B of the FreeSWITCH book you'll see that Anthony Minessale started
the FreeSWITCH project in large part because of "Asterisk frustrations" -
so don't think that you're alone.)

Perhaps the best thing to do to find out if FreeSWITCH is for you is to
talk to some of our community members. We have a number of people who've
made the jump from Asterisk to FreeSWITCH. I think they'll all agree that
the pain is short-term but the benefits are long term. I would recommend
two things:

#1 - Join #freeswitch on irc.freenode.net. You'll find nearly 200 people
there, many of whom can relate to your Asterisk frustrations and who are
willing to talk to you.

#2 - Call in to the FreeSWITCH weekly conference call on Wednesday. It's at
1PM eastern, 10AM pacific. I'm the moderator of the call. More information
can be found here <http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Weekly_Conference_Call>.

We think you will find our community is quite energetic and engaging. Oh,
and we have a few people who are quite opinionated as well. :) You are
welcome to come join us.

-Michael Collins (IRC: mercutioviz)

On Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 8:46 AM, Craig Smith <craigesmith at gmail.com> wrote:

> Some recent frustrations with Asterisk have me looking at FreeSWITCH, but
> it’s lack? of adoption leaves me wondering.
>
> Here are some questions I have as a long time Asterisk user, dCAP, and
> Astricon attendee.
>
>
> Why hasn’t FreeSWITCH reached a critical mass?
>
> Is the XML configuration that scary?
>
> What does Asterisk have that FreeSWITCH doesn’t?
>
> Does FreeSWITCH need better documentation and/or tutorials?
>
> Is it git?
>
> Would a FreeSWITCH certification help?
>
>
> I want to help the FreeSWITCH project, but I’m not developer or
> philanthropist , what can I do?
>
> _________________________________________________________________________
> Professional FreeSWITCH Consulting Services:
> consulting at freeswitch.org
> http://www.freeswitchsolutions.com
>
> 
> 
>
> Official FreeSWITCH Sites
> http://www.freeswitch.org
> http://wiki.freeswitch.org
> http://www.cluecon.com
>
> FreeSWITCH-users mailing list
> FreeSWITCH-users at lists.freeswitch.org
> http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/listinfo/freeswitch-users
> UNSUBSCRIBE:http://lists.freeswitch.org/mailman/options/freeswitch-users
> http://www.freeswitch.org
>
>
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