[asterisk-users] Is Asterisk really good??

[Eugen Soare]

So this is just a general question, Is Asterisk really good?

Reliability?

Functionality?

Customization's?


I am coming from a Nortel world, were you pay for everything, and you 
can't delve into the software. But it seems that customization would be 
a great thing.
Like, setting up a war-dialer to customer lists, incoming/outgoing 
faxes  (that's possible with Asterisk, right?) and making your own cool 
voice mail stuff.

But before I delve into it, I thought a question to the community would 
be in order.

2 more questions.

1 - Can you really make free outgoing calls from let's say Portland OR, 
to Frankfurt Germany?
2 - What would it take to set one up?  cards / computer power / pricing 
on software? What has your experience been?

Thank you for taking time to look at this post!
Eugen