[asterisk-users] Summary of "Trixbox vs. custom install"

[Stefano Corsi]

Hello everybody. First of all thanks to all the people giving their 
opinion on the subject I proposed: "Trixbox vs. custom install". 
You've all been very helpful.

I try to summarize what has emerged from the various messages. 
Forgive me if I miss or forget something or if I simplify too much 
some of your messages...

- Elman Efendiyev says that you should install from sources if you 
need customized setup. He suggests using Slackware for Asterisk installations.

- Lee Jenkins suggests using a GUI (like Asterisk at Home), while 
admitting there are some problems with dialplan customization. He has 
also written his own Asterisk GUI to learn system internals, among 
other reasons.

- Michael Collins suggests having two boxes two play with both 
Trixbox and a scratch install. Each method, he says, can teach a lot. 
He has still not decided which one to use in production.

- Edward Halman suggests a step-by-step install. But he says also 
that if you just need Asterisk, FreePBX and A2Billing, Trixbox can be 
a good choice because setting up FreePPBX and A2Billing can be a little tricky.

- Stephen Bosch writes: if you're only going to use Voip Trunks... 
use Trixbox. But if you're going to use PSTN hardware (like Digium or 
Sangoma cards), then a custom install is better. He had problems with 
Trixbox 2.0 and hardware, then replaced it with a custom install. He 
says also that the userbase of custom install is greater and has more 
advanced knowledge.

- Shadowym states that if you're not able to set up Asterisk with a 
custom install, you should not use it in a production environment.

- Mark Brooker says that both approaches are to be mastered. Anyway, 
you should be able to install from source to use Asterisk in a 
production environment. However, FreePBX is a great tool and should 
be used too.

- Tom Rymes says that troubleshooting a GUI is much easier and 
Trixbox has no more problems with hardware than a custom install has. 
For example, on Sangoma site, there's a link to a customized Trixbox 
version targeted to Sangoma cards.  Using Yum you can download new 
drivers an eventually install them. For what regarding the user base, 
Trixbox contains FreePBX and FreePBX has a huge user base, so that 
can also help. He concludes that if you want easy of use for you and 
your customers, you should use Trixbox. If you want complete control 
you should go for a custom install.

- Tzafrir Cohen (in reply to Tom Rymes) reports problems with "Yum 
update" and says that abstraction can hide relevant details. For 
example, just to figure out if a FreePBX actually dialed, requires a 
trained Asterisk user examining the logs.

- Stephen Bosch (in reply to Tom Rymes) says that he prefers not 
using binary distributions. About troubleshooting a GUI, he says 
that's not troubleshooting, it's more often debugging... Trixbox, 
furthermore, has little documentation. Furthermore, having to 
download drivers from various sites cancel the advantages of an 
"easy" Trixbox installation. And for what regarding the user base, he 
says that the messages regarding Trixbox are not answered so promptly 
within the Asterisk mailing list. He concludes: if you have at last 
to go back to pico/vim/emacs... better start with them.

- Tzafrir Cohen (in reply to Stephen Bosch) suggests using SRPMS to 
rebuild packages from sources.

- Tom Rymes (in reply to Tzafir Cohen) says he never had problems 
with Yum update. Of course you have to exclude the Kernel from the 
Yum updates. He reports installing Trixbox many times with Sangoma 
cards. He concludes that neither approaches, anyway, can be fine for 
everybody and you must choose the right approach according to your needs.

I also include a consideration from mine: I would happily use 
Trixbox, because I did FreePBX setup once and it was a real pain, but 
I'm very frightened by a few issues:

1) Trixbox "Macho" installation that installs everything without 
asking. I, for example, would like to use software RAID (maybe it's 
wrong with Asterisk, but I want to do it!). I wouldn't like doing it 
manually after Trixbox installation. I would like to have an 
installer doing it for me. Centos (ex redhat) installer does it, so 
why Trixbox choose to install everything without prompting?

2) How easy it is to find Trixbox SRPMS?  Is it possible to compile 
new software (i.e. Asterisk or FreePBX, etc..) on Trixbox without 
having to rewrite all the configuration files, changing all paths, 
all permissions, and so on...

3) Trixbox site and documentation are really SCARY. Someone should 
tell those guys.

4) How about updates? Are they published with a constant pace from 
the Trixbox team?

Again (as for point 3) from the site and documentation I see, I don't 
expect me a very responsive development team.

Thanks to everybody

Stefano












--
Stefano Corsi
www.floo.it
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