[asterisk-dev] Asterisk Release Maintenance News

[Bill Andersen]

>Michiel van Baak wrote: 
> Every project has releases that become too old to support/maintain.

As a non-asterisk programmer who typically just lurks on this list,
(I do program, just not asterisk projects) I'd like to make a small
comment here.  I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers, just make a
point from a USER of asterisk's perspective.

I AGREE you can't keep backporting forever.  How long do you keep
updating older versions?  I certainly don't know.  But one thing I have
found with projects like asterisk, where a software product is acting
like what used to be a hardware solution, is that USERS don't see
the difference.  To the USER, asterisk is not a programming project.
Asterisk is a PBX.  It is a phone system.  Users want to make and
receive phone calls - reliably!!!  When I implemented asterisk,
I replaced a 12 year old phone system.  One in which I rarely spent
more than 2-3 hours A YEAR, fiddling with...  I spend at least that
much (or more) every MONTH with asterisk!

Don't get me wrong, I love asterisk and the features it offers.
But a note to the developers out there: You must remember it is a
PBX, not a piece of software, from the end users perspective.
They may not expect 12 years from their investment (because the
investment was significantly lower). BUT, end users don't expect
to always have to keep upgrading their PBX year after year like
they do with something like Microsoft Office.

I don't know that magic number of how long to support the older
versions, but it must be more than standard software.

Why?  Because Asterisk is a PBX, not software...

<fire proof suit on>

:) Bill