[Asterisk-Users] Re: Re: Digium Website Update: Asterisk Business Edition

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

On Sunday 12 June 2005 16:27, Esben Stien wrote:
> They already stated that the proprietary version, if I'm not mistaken,
> is nothing but the free version, but with a custom set of features
> that fits their support plan.

Not really.  ABE is a VERY SPECIFIC version of HEAD (or is it STABLE?) with 
features CUT OUT and nothing added that isn't in HEAD already.

This is key:  NO NEW FEATURES.  There isn't any wowie-gee feature in ABE that 
you won't have in HEAD.  You just can't have the EXACT SAME source tree, and 
even those who purchase ABE don't have access to that.

Again, I totally fail to see the problem here.

> Why not just offer support on these features?. It's not harder than to
> state which features are supported and it what shape asterisk must be
> in to be qualified for support.

This is exactly what they are doing.  They are supporting a very specific 
branch with an eye for stability and repeatability. 

> All in all, there is a solution to support the project as a whole as
> long as you got qualified support personell.

"Yes hello this is Jim from NewVoipCo, I've got Asterisk installed and... 
pardon?   Oh, it's CVS HEAD from 20050612 and anyway... what?  oh, I pulled 
it at about 9am.  What timezone?  oh, PST.  And anyway as I was saying... the 
compiler?  GCC 3.3.2... libc?  6.  Six what?  oh sorry it's 2.3.4.  On 
Mandrake.  Yes..."

Digium's avoiding all this bullshit.  It's a specific version of Asterisk 
compiled by them.  This is a good thing, not a bad thing.

-A.