[asterisk-users] Why does everyone seem to dislike *now?

[Lacy Moore - Aspendora]

On 9/17/07, Jim Canfield <jcanfield at tshmail.com> wrote:
>
>  Greetings,
>
> Last week I began researching Asterisk for the first time. I did what most
> noobs would do; downloaded an image that seemed simple and straightforward
> and had some credibility (*now).  I also downloaded the TFOT version 1 as a
> guide.
>
> As questions arose, I tossed a few out in #asterisckNOW channel..and found
> it to be a ghost town.  Only later did i start to ask a few quesions in
> #asterisk...my biggest mistake was mentioning *now and I was quickly marked
> as the GUI idiot.  Not entirely untrue at this point but not helpful for
> someone who is getting started.
>

You started in asteriskNOW, which was the right place.  No one was there, so
you decided to go to asterisk and got upset that no one would answer your
questions regarding asteriskNOW.

My guess is that there was no one there that had any experience with
asteriskNOW, if there was, they would have been on asteriskNOW as well.

What you will find is that asking gui questions in asterisk is about like
asking about the New York Giants in a New York Jets forums.  They are both
NFL teams and both from New York.  However, they both have their own fan
base and not too many people are fans of both and neither one will help you
with information regarding the other.

I may know Asterisk, and may try to help you, but when you start talking the
gui's I won't be able to help much.  Not because I'm ignoring you, but
because I don't know the gui's.  I know the cli and have no use in learning
the gui.

There is a asterisk-now and asterisk-gui mailing list.  Both are low volume
compared to this.  There is also some forums for asteriskNOW located at
forums.digium.com.  You may want to give the forums a try.

asteriskNOW may be suffering from the chicken and egg concept.  There aren't
enough people using it, so there aren't enough people answering questions.
There aren't enough people answering questions because there aren't enough
people using it.

Since asteriskNOW is based on 1.4, it could be that people are in a wait and
see period.  There are a lot of people, myself included, that haven't
switched to 1.4.  I heavily use the chan_sccp project, and until things
stabilize enough on 1.4 so that chan_sccp can stabilize on 1.4, I can't
switch.

I'm sure over the next 6 to 12 months more people will be moving to 1.4, and
because of that, we'll see more activity with asteriskNOW.  The only way
it'll happen faster is if Digium hires Microsoft's marketing people to
convince everyone that everyone else is using 1.4 and they should switch
before getting left behind.  Let's face it, you don't want to be the last
person left running an outdated piece of software (for the record, I still
use Windows 2000  and XP, and only have Vista on a test machine, so that
marketing doesn't always work).

Just hang in there and you may be one of the first pioneers using
asteriskNOW, while the rest of us dinosaurs still use the cli :-)

Here are my first impressions:
>
>    - The Devs have spent a LOT of time on *now and seem to be doing a
>    fantastic job.
>    - *now is not just a GUI...it's a complete base/reference system - I
>    like that the MOST.
>    - *now is a great starting point for someone new (Me).
>    - *now needs documentation!  I know it's in beta, but having links
>    to a down site, is not cool. (Sign me up for help if needed).
>    - *now could be more geared for use as a universal tool.  The
>    default contexts and files were quickly replaced with more standard configs.
>    - *now could be very helpful in tracking issues with links to
>    "Report a problem" or search the WIKI from the app.
>
> I understand the tendency to love the CLI, but I honestly think there a
> place for a GUI in Asterisk. How many of us still use the mysql CLI? I can't
> expect my helpdesk guy to know emacs or vi just to add a user.
>
> Curiously,
>
> jc
>
>
>
>
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>
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-- 
Lacy Moore
Somewhere I wish I wasn't
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