[Asterisk-Users] Is the X100P a WinModem?

Tilghman Lesher tilghman at mail.jeffandtilghman.com
Wed Oct 22 20:38:54 MST 2003


On Wednesday 22 October 2003 18:57, Chris Albertson wrote:
> What I see are two types of Asterisk users:
>
>    1) People running Telco consulting firms who are charging
>       thousands to install and maintain Asterisk based systems.
>
>    2) Hobbists who are installing these systems in their
>       homes for self educaton and entertainment.
>
> If digium's bussines plan is based on making money off #2 above
> they got big problems as these folks can't justify spending money
> The #1 users however can.  I would think a good plan for them would
> be to sell to the #1 guys while doing everthing they can grow the
> size of the #2 type user base.  That is how Linux took off,
> Geeks (likeme) loved it and it was free so they took it to work.
> It was
> great because a low level technician could get Linux because it
> did not require that a PO be cut or approved.  Basically the
> hobbyists took Linux in through the back door.  Digium would
> be smart to follow that model.

I'm not sure why you're so concerned about Digium's business plan.
They've done fine before you came along, and I think they're going
to continue to do fine, as long as they aren't undercut.  After all,
Asterisk's success is largely tied to the success of Digium; the founder
and president of Digium is the maintainer and largest contributor to the
codebase.

> If I were Digum I'd sell FXO card with bootable Linux CD, asterisk
> preinstalled for $20 a bundle.  What I'd really like to see is
> multi-line fxs cards at $10.00 per line.  When that happens Asterisk
> will _really_ take off.  They'll make money on consulting, feature
> requests that come with payment and hardware aimed at the
> office with more than two incomming lines.

Except that you're not Digium, so you have no idea whatsoever on
what their costs are or what makes them successful.  Armchair
businessmen are a dime a dozen; it doesn't help that everytime you
post to the list, you advocate products which will undercut Digium's
source of revenue.

> As for contributing, I do software for a living, my time is billable
> at something like $125/hr.  I'll contribute many hours of time,
> don't worry.  I've written many thousands of GPL'd lines of code.

How many hours have you contributed so far?  I know I've contributed
close to 1,000 lines of code (or more) to Asterisk, despite Digium not
having slashed their prices.  For someone who apparently claims to be
God's gift to programmers everywhere, you seem to do a lot of talking
about other people's businesses and very little coding.

-Tilghman




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