[Asterisk-Users] Is the X100P a WinModem?

[Steven Critchfield]

On Wed, 2003-10-22 at 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.

Hardware sales are user independent. You could say that T1 interfaces
would be business type users, but I use a T1 card at home for personal
uses. 

>   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 question your logic of how linux made it anywhere. It may be true for
some businesses, but ones like the one I work at, have a long history of
linux use. It was a calculated decision. 

> 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.

And you would go broke trying to do the support. The home user usually
needs 10 times the support of a corporate user, and like you they don't
want to pay for it. At least a corporate user understands the cost of
business.

> 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.

If your time is that valuable, then you should have no problem coming up
with the price of current hardware. When you contribute, I will thank
you for it, as will many other people here. 

> --- John Todd <jtodd at loligo.com> wrote:
> > I have no financial interest in Digium, nor do they pay me for 
> > anything.  That being said, I am a strong proponent of the work that 
> > Digium has done with Asterisk, and I recognize that there would not 
> > be an Asterisk project without Digium.
> > 
> > I have done the same research as you have, and I figured out that the
> > 
> > X100P cards are not terribly difficult to duplicate if one is 
> > suitably clueful and finds the information out by themselves.  There 
> > is an unwritten rule that those people who have clue on this 
> > particular topic should not go out of their way to make that data 
> > available to anyone who happens to read the list.
> > 
> > Digium is barely able to make ends meet, and anything that threatens 
> > Digium's well-being is a threat to my customers, since if Digium's 
> > contributions to Asterisk cease, the project will most likely 
> > languish and die.  This would be bad for you, me, and everyone else 
> > on the list.
> > 
> > I would appreciate it if you could let this topic drop, so that the 
> > other members of the list don't start producing and selling cards 
> > which undercut those of Digium, as we have seen with some people on 
> > eBay already.  $100 is a completely reasonable price to pay for such 
> > a card, considering that the "profit" on that price is going to 
> > funding the software, and I encourage everyone to spend the $100 and 
> > keep the project alive.  As soon as an alternative becomes widely 
> > known, I suspect most users will not send any kind of "contribution" 
> > replacement fund to Digium for the time spent on the project.  This 
> > method of OSS funding works for the moment, so please try to keep 
> > things in their current state as best you can by not outlining 
> > specific methods to implement non-Digium cards as X100P replacements.
> > 
> > JT
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> =====
> Chris Albertson
>   Home:   310-376-1029  chrisalbertson90278 at yahoo.com
>   Cell:   310-990-7550
>   Office: 310-336-5189  Christopher.J.Albertson at aero.org
>   KG6OMK
> 
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-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>