[Asterisk-Users] res_motv: Request for Comment

[Steven Sokol]

Andy Powell Wrote:
> I'd like to give this one 10 thumbs down. IMHO a bad idea, a nasty little
> bad idea.. evil, spawn of Satan. If this were implemented the first job of
> a new update would be to rip it out and flush it down the nearest toilet.
> 

Just curious, but why does it strike you as such a bad idea?  Especially if
it was disabled by default.  I can understand you not wanting your system
security or your personal privacy compromised, but I think it would be great
to have it in place for:

A) Manual activation for those who want automated updates.
B) CLI execution for occasional comparison to the current set.

Perhaps it should be possible to flag the request with a token indicating
that you don't want to be part of the "survey", and you don't want your
IP/host information stored.  A --anon option, if you will.

> I can only wait until we see M$ like activation implemented... oh the
> joy...

I am going to guess that you're joking.  I just don't see that happening.
Mark and the team at Digium seem dedicated to open source and to the
Asterisk community.  His asking for comments on this idea is a pretty good
indicator of his concern for the community's opinions.

> It would be much better just to have the information present on either the
> Digium site or some other location. I see little point in wasting your
> valuable time doing something like this when there are so many outstanding
> issues and feature requests that could offer more.

Perhaps Mark's time could be spent on other things, but I would still like
to see Digium offer this option -- perhaps one of the other developers could
head up the effort?

Just putting the current version information up on a web page is nice, but
it doesn't allow me to automatically query the system and discover known
issues and possible solutions.  I think that, for service providers that
could very well be a critical next step.  Several of my clients made the
decision to go with RedHat based on their update service (for which they
gladly paid).

I would like to see the idea implemented, but I would like to see the above
security considerations implemented (manual activation, a CLI option, and an
anonymous option).  I would also like to see the service extended into all
of the Applications, Resources, Codecs, Formats, and other major components
of Asterisk.  It would be great to know when changes to both the core
Asterisk engine and the associated modules are made, what the changes are,
and also when new applications/resources/codecs, etc. are added to the CVS.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Steve