[Freeswitch-users] FreeSWITCH

[Patrick Lists]

Craig,

Welcome to the FreeSWITCH community. Comments inline.

On 11/13/2011 05:46 PM, Craig Smith wrote:
> Some recent frustrations with Asterisk have me looking at FreeSWITCH,
> but it’s lack? of adoption leaves me wondering.

Lack of adoption? How do you come to that conclusion? FreeSWITCH may not 
be as visible as Asterisk but it would not surprise me if in the ITSP 
world FreeSWITCH handled vastly more minutes than Asterisk. Admittedly 
FreeSWITCH is an excellent solution for an ITSP.

> Here are some questions I have as a long time Asterisk user, dCAP, and
> Astricon attendee.

To meet the FreeSWITCH developers and community visit ClueCon. For more 
info check out: http://www.cluecon.com/

> Why hasn’t FreeSWITCH reached a critical mass?

Define critical mass. There are quite a few ITSPs offering phone 
services which are powered by FreeSWITCH (amongst other things). You may 
even be using one without knowing it.

> Is the XML configuration that scary?

XML is about as scary as HTML 0.1.

> What does Asterisk have that FreeSWITCH doesn’t?

Deadlocks :-)

> Does FreeSWITCH need better documentation and/or tutorials?

There is always room for improvement of the Wiki. The same goes for 
writing tutorials.

> Is it git?

Yes, the SCM system used is git.
http://fisheye.freeswitch.org/

> Would a FreeSWITCH certification help?

Help what?

> I want to help the FreeSWITCH project, but I’m not developer or
> philanthropist , what can I do?

Write tutorials, update/improve the wiki. If you succeed in building a 
succesfull business based on FreeSWITCH then you could give back e.g. by 
funding bounties to be developed by the FreeSWITCH core developers.

Have fun setting up your first FreeSWITCH box. Afaik the FreeSWITCH core 
developers use CentOS so you can safely use that but ubuntu or debian 
should work fine too. It helps if you use git master because if you 
think you have found a bug and report it, the developers will ask if you 
were able to recreate it with git master. So you might as well be using 
that in the first place. Here is how to get git master:

$ git clone git://git.freeswitch.org/freeswitch.git

To get started go here:
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Main_Page

Asterisk to FreeSWITCH Rosetta Stone:
http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Rosetta_stone

Highly recommended: buy the FreeSWITCH book
https://www.packtpub.com/freeswitch-1-0-6-build-robust-high-performance-telephony-systems/book

If you are interested in a GUI to manage a FreeSWITCH box check out:
http://www.fusionpbx.com/
http://www.2600hz.org/ (Blue.Box)

For a quick question the #freeswitch irc channel on irc.freenode.net is 
an excellent place. There is also a weekly conference where various 
things are discussed. The conference and topic(s) are announced on the 
mailing list.

Enjoy!

Regards,
Patrick