FYI Schmooze Commercial Modules and PIAF

[Yahdie]

I was about to purchase when I saw:

WARNING: Modules are ONLY SUPPORTED on the Official FreePBX Distro

 

[rossiv]

That's strange. As long as you are on a CentOS build of PIAF, it should work just fine. I have a decent number of them running fine on an older PIAF instance.

I know they won't work on RasPi, BBB, or any of those. Has to be RedHat-based. There was a thread about that here recently.

 

[Yahdie]

Hmmm....maybe they mean that they work but without actual Support?
Thanks for your responses

 

[wardmundy]

We've come full circle with Tony & Co. Originally they were ecstatic to have additional folks using their commercial offerings and their support. But every time we got a report back, it always seemed to include a suggestion that you'd be better off with their distro. Green seems to change people. Haven't we seen this before? In the commercial world, it's known as tying. We offer no opinion as to its legality.

I suspect this has more to do with forced migration than technical issues. Tony acquired a new attitude once he persuaded Digium to switch to his distribution for AsteriskNOW... hence our new moniker as the "hobbyist distro." Our forum participation and user registrations increased by over 30% this year so hooray for hobbyists. And we're not weeping about the new antics, just a little disappointed. Hard to believe in light of the Schmooze Com offer less than 2 weeks ago!

If there is a commercial module that requires FreePBX authentication, then it probably won't work with PIAF's Apache authentication. There are very few of those unless it now is being engineered into new offerings. Aside from that, if module prerequisites are documented, then the other modules should work just fine.

 

[Yahdie]

I'm a true believer in PIAF and the effort, approach and community. My only interest in the Commercial Modules is the Parking Module; I have a multi-location customer that would prefer distinct location AND department Parking Lots.
As this System is in production I need something that just works.

 

[wardmundy]

Are we sure the Parking Module won't work?? I can think of no reason that would depend upon FreePBX authentication. Other than that, the RPMs to support commercial modules are already in place on PIAF3 systems.

 

[kenn10]

Are we sure the Parking Module won't work?? I can think of no reason that would depend upon FreePBX authentication. Other than that, the RPMs to support commercial modules are already in place on PIAF3 systems.

Parking lot module works fine with PIAF. I'm PIAF Green, FreePBX 12, and it lets me set up multiple parking lots.

 

[SkykingOH]

I'm a true believer in PIAF and the effort, approach and community. My only interest in the Commercial Modules is the Parking Module; I have a multi-location customer that would prefer distinct location AND department Parking Lots.
As this System is in production I need something that just works.

Something that just works. As a businessman and someone who has made and makes their living installing, supporting and hosting Open Source Telephony systems you could not say it better.

To my knowledge we have been doing this longer as the same entity than anyone else. We have long surpassed the million dollar mark in annual sales. I have also been around Asterisk and AMP for well over 10 years.

In my opinion PBXiaf has always been where the hobbyist go. Many innovations and great modules came out of the creativity of this community. To be unshackled by commercial accountability fosters pushing the envelope.

It seems that Schmooze and company is getting demonized over here and lumped into the moral disaster that was trixbox.

Now I see looking at Yate and ASTGUI, anything but FreePBX?

To compare Schmooze to Fonality is outrageous. At every turn Andrew and Kerry deceived the community. Schmooze has with the new wiki and development tools has exposed and supported Open Source FreePBX to the greatest extent in the history of the project.

For the reseller an ecosystem has been created that can be explained to a customer and we have a financially and morally stable vendor.

PBXiaf is part of that community and ecosystem. Let's get on with the business of supporting and extending a great Open Source project.

In the end the derision and hatred only serve to divide and fracture the project.

Thanks...... Scott

Th

 

[wardmundy]

None of this was initiated by us, SkykingOH. As for "it just works," we'll be glad to compare track records anytime. Tony has accomplished some great things for FreePBX that only money could buy. So hatred is an unfair characterization from our vantage point. I personally am a little disappointed in the "sales tactics" encouraging migration because the pitch simply isn't true. I also think the commingling of commercial modules and open source modules has been engineered to encourage migration to what is more and more a commercial platform. From your perspective, that's a good thing, and I appreciate where you're coming from and how you earn your living. In fairness, I think references to past projects have had more to do with this commercialization of the FreePBX open source project rather than anything sinister. Visit freepbx.org and circle the sections of the main page that cost money. That makes the point better than any of us ever could.

As for working cooperatively again...

 

[SkykingOH]

Hi Ward, I think all your points are all well taken. The only thing I would point out is that FreePBX Distro is not a "product" it's another project. What is also true is it a well controlled project, if you agree with the teams direction that is a good thing, if you don't it's not. I get that and everyone has different goals.

Mine is simple, to deliver the most stable and sustainable Open Source Telephony Solution. Schmooze delivers that for me. So call this a testimonial not a fan boy if you must characterize my intent.

I do see how some of the efforts complicate other distributions, having multiple distributions is good for the FreePBX project as a whole.

Lastly, I only mentioned Fonality because of the comparison that was made. Only time will tell for some I guess, but you and I both knew Andrew and Kerry AKA GPLAW (or was it too L's) and we both know Tony and Bryan. I am standing by my friends, who have earned that place. Ward I appreciate you chiming in on the pesonality issues, you do after all beat the drum around here!

I may not be the right person for all this as I have a reputation of being an arrogant prick, however that too was quite a while ago, and I always tried to provide real help and direction.

ttyl

 

[boeingpilot]

My $.02... (disclaimer, Ward, SkyKing and the team at Scmoozecom have all helped different projects I've worked on)

Several years ago, after the trixboxCE debacle, where I pointed people there because they would have a support outlet should I fall out of favor with them, just to have Fonality pull the plug, Ward announced that paid support could be had from Schmooze for PIAF. Perfect I said. I began installing PIAF to replace the defunct trixbox distro. Then Ward pointed us towards the commercial modules. I have no problems whatsoever buying modules for my customers. Where I run into issues is that (at least on first look), if you don't use their distro, Schmooze disclaims any responsibility. I don't have an issue with them saying, hey, we can't fix everything, but we'll give it a quick look.

In reality, that's what Schmooze has done after giving me the party line. (Thank you!). But to say their distro is the only way to use, that's kind of hard for us as we have a number of PIAF systems happily working in production. We can't just tell our customers oh by the way, we're going to pull your PBX and reinstall from scratch.

As for me, I feel comfortable supporting my systems no matter which distro it was installed on, but commercial customers should have an established support option should I not be able to service the needs. It just seems it's a moving target on seeing which distro I can keep supported from a third party.

My suggestion for Schmooze, on existing installs of FreePBX, whether it be PIAF, FreePBX distro or (forbid the thought! ) Elastix, is give us some option to work on existing systems! As for the modules, same deal... don't just as a matter of course say, tough, when it may just be a simple question.

Rant off.....

 

[wardmundy]