[Asterisk-doc] I'm thinking that FTP makes more sense for VolumeOne than CVS does

[Jim Van Meggelen]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-doc-bounces at lists.digium.com
> [mailto:asterisk-doc-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of 
> Darryl Ross
> Sent: October 10, 2004 11:30 PM
> To: Discussions regarding The Asterisk Documentation Project
> Subject: Re: [Asterisk-doc] I'm thinking that FTP makes more 
> sense for VolumeOne than CVS does
> 
> 
> > jim at digitalchemy.ca wrote:
> > If Asterisk 1.0 becomes as popular as we all know it will, the ever
> > increasing volume
> > of downloads will also put an enormous burden on 
> > Asterisk.org's FTP server. 
> > Obviously, sharing the load amongst several mirrors will 
> > quickly become very 
> > attractive. 
> 
> Digium's FTP server only has 768k of outbound bandwidth
> (according to the Wiki), hence why when 
> 1.0RC1 was announced quite a number of people immediately put 
> it up on their servers as mirrors 
> (myself included).

A worthy effort, but your next idea is even better.

> I have sent an email to Mark suggesting that perhaps some
> sort of formal mirror arrangement 
> might be a good idea, something akin to how the samba or PHP 
> projects run their sites. I 
> haven't had any response from him yet. I might think about 
> adding a ticket to mantis, if 
> there's a category that would suit.

That is not just a good idea, it's essential to the future growth and
success of Asterisk.

> > Probably the distribution strategy for 1.0 will need to be
> different
> > from the method
> > popular with the  development community.
> 
> CVS is a tool for developers who need to keep track of
> changes, whereas prepackaged tarballs, 
> RPMs, DEBs, etc are more for end-users. Just because there is 
> a tarball doesn't mean people 
> can't use CVS if they want HEAD.

Exactly my thoughts.

> Personally, I'll moving our network of servers to 1.0 and
> keeping them there rather than 
> running CVS HEAD. As someone else in the thread has mentioned 
> it reduces my administration 
> tasks and it also means that I can easily make sure that all 
> my servers are running the same 
> version.

You won't be alone. It's logical to expect that within a very short
time, at least 90% of Asterisk installations will be running 1.0. Of
those, I'd argue that most will remain at 1.0 until the next non-beta
release is available (and that will be deployed cautiously; only if
features/fixes justify the effort). 

Asterisk was ready for prime time. Many visionaries, realizing that,
were willing to deploy it while it was still beta. But all of them were
dreaming of a formal, stable 1.0 release.

It is exciting and encouraging to realize that 1.0 is just the
beginning. The number of good ideas seems to increase exponentially.
Here's a few I'm excited/dreaming about: 
1. Some formal, structured, completed documentation . . . no really, I
promise. (also, that neatly keeps this thread on-topic . . . LOL!) 
2. A few PBX designs/templates/wizards released to the community, as
opposed to the current practice of pretending to have invented the
thing. 
3. An evolution of the dial plan to allow faster, tighter database and
script integration (this is happening daily, or possibly hourly!). 
4. The development of methods to unload DSP functions from the CPU
(there's been talk of figuring out how to use the power of inexpensive,
ubiquitous graphics chips to provide this - no idea if it could be done,
but an interesting concept nonetheless). An inexpensive DSP card may
make an appearance at some point. 
5. An IAXy with an FXO interface (the hardware already exists), and very
probably (hopefully?) an über-IAXy - like a shelf you can use to build
an IAX channel bank.
6. More and more IAX-compatible phones.
7. A PRIAXy?

The one big challenge for the next year or two: The spin doctors and
media are going to try and foul the Asterisk name by referring to it as
a hacker's PBX. We, of course, knowing the proper definition of the
term, will agree, which will cause them to cry "See?!?, They Admit
it!!". 

Much FUD can be expected to be directed at Asterisk over the next year
or two, until it's merits become too obvious to ignore. Many of the big
names in Telecom are already paying attention, and since they have
demonstrated an inability/unwillingness to improve their products, their
next strategy may very well be to attack ours. This pressure will
increase as Asterisk steals more and more of their business. Eventually,
they will either wake up, or die.

Cheers,

Jim.
 

> --
> 
> Darryl Ross
> Senior Network Engineer
> OEG Australia
> Email: darryl at oeg.com.au
> Phone: 61 8 81228361
> 
> If you want to live up to the whole "There is more than one way to
>      do it" slogan, you have to give someone a swiss army chainsaw ...
> 
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