[Asterisk-Users] Business Edition

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

On Monday 18 July 2005 13:20, Kevin Walsh wrote:
> Absolutely not.  If you find that you need $995 worth of support, some
> time in the future, then I'm sure that you can obtain it from one of
> several providers.  I don't think it's worth paying up-front for
> something you probably won't need, but that's really for you to decide.

To some the stability and repeatability of ABE is well worth the money.  
Contractors can be good, and with a contractor I'm sure you can get the same 
level of stability and repeatability as ABE.  I think that is particuarly WHY 
Digium's trying to create it...  it's a successful service and they want in 
on it.  And honestly, Digium's got the resources to pull it off very nicely.  
Your regular contractor (me, for instance) can't realistically provide 24/7 
support on his own.  Digium can.  Your regular contractor can't realistically 
fix any problem that may happen on his own.  Digium can.  Kudos to them, I 
say.

I dunno... people seem all up in arms about this but honestly I fail to see 
the problem.  Digium is doing what they can to make money and provide 
services while keeping Asterisk as free and openly developed as possible.  I 
have (small amounts of) code contributed to Asterisk and I am working on 
more.  Digium and Asterisk have given me a lot of newfound freedom and 
flexibility and power in my phone system.  I appreciate that, and I don't 
feel that this dual-licensing or granting of a nonexclusive perpetual license 
to the bits and pieces of my code is too much to ask.  My bits and pieces 
would be worthless without the bits and pieces and chunks and slabs of code 
that others have provided, and it'd all be useless without the framework that 
Digium came out with.

If you don't want or don't like ABE, don't use it.  Nobody is cramming it down 
your throat.  

-A.