[asterisk-users] Linux distro + Asterisk or Trixbox?

[Carla Schroder]

On Saturday 16 December 2006 5:14 am, Phil Finkler wrote:
> Hey all,
>
>
>
> I've been doing a lot of playing, and a lot of reading, and it seems
> people are split as to whereas if they're running their favorite Linux
> distro and asterisk or Trixbox.  I'm getting closer to really looking at
> a production environment and I'm just looking for any opinions.  I'm
> really enjoying learning linux and asterisk, so initial "ease of use"
> isn't really a huge benefit to me.  In the end stability and
> upgradeability will be my main concerns.
>
>

Trixbox is HUGE. If you need all the bells and whistles- a MySQL backend, the 
CentOS operating system, AMP, SugarCRM, Festival, monitoring consoles, 
everything pointy-clicky, and on and on and on, then Trixbox is for you. It 
has some disadvantages. There is not a clear correlation between the 
graphical admin tools and the underlying text configuration files, so 
debugging problems is harder, and you have to know two ways of doing things. 
The documentation sucks rocks- there isn't any to speak of. When 
Asterisk at Home changed the name to Trixbox, they moved to a new web site and 
didn't bring any of the help docs or forums with them. There is a book you 
can buy, 'Trixbox Made Easy'.

I think it's better to learn plain-vanilla Asterisk first. Then if you move on 
to some other implementation you'll be better prepared to understand what 
it's doing.

You might give AstLinux a try. It's a complete Linux distribution + Asterisk 
1.2.-something, but tiny, about 40 megabytes. No wasted bits. It has a 
nicely-organized Web GUI for those who like such. You can switch between the 
Web interface and editing the config files directly without getting in 
trouble. It runs on single-board computers and ordinary old PCs. It's my 
current fave, though I'm also running Asterisk 1.4/CentOS on a test box.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Carla Schroder
Linux geek and random computer tamer
check out my Linux Cookbook! 
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxckbk/
best book for sysadmins and power users
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~