[Mac-telephony-list] Community voting on new name for Mac PBX

[Sunrise Ltd via List]

On Dec 9, 2006, at 5:16 PM, Martin Joseph via List wrote:

> Is this (openPBX) really a drop in compatible deal with my asterisk
> 1.2.13 config files?

There are two minor changes to configuration:

1) in extensions.conf

- variables and application names are case sensitive in OpenPBX.org

for example, NoOp() is proper, while noop() would result in an error.

- AGI has been renamed to OGI, to avoid any potential trademark  
issues. It's the same thing though.

- Marco has been renamed to Proc, to reflect the reality of how it  
behaves

However, OpenPBX.org comes with a script that checks and converts the  
dialplan accordingly.

There is a HOWTO page on Voip-Info.org which explains the use of the  
script:

http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=OpenPBX.org+How+to+use 
+the+dialplan+checking+and+conversion+script

2) in sip.conf

some parameters have been added for STUN support and Fax over IP  
support.


> Does it put things in the same places?

Yes and no.

The OpenPBX.org build system allows you to specify where the  
installation is to be located on the filesystem. One of the available  
options mirrors the Asterisk layout. However, filenames and  
directories which contained the name Asterisk before have been  
renamed to an OpenPBX.org equivalent. You cannot undo the name change  
without editing the build scripts yourself.

Note that "Asterisk" is a registered trademark of Digium. As a  
consequence, only Digium can grant a permission to use this name for  
anything related to PBX software. Digium grants this permission by  
way of their trademark policy but it is strictly limited to use with  
*unmodified* Digium releases of Asterisk. There is no such permission  
for modified versions, let alone derivatives of Asterisk.


> I think I would be VERY interested in switching to OpenPBX on the
> production system, if it's a truely compatible rig or very close and
> easy to migrate to...

Migrating from Asterisk 1.2 to OpenPBX.org is far easier than  
upgrading from Asterisk 1.2 to 1.4.


> Also I would like to say, that while touting the "cross platform"
> nature of OpenPBX, this project intends to fork off to a mac only
> release?

Sunrise does not intend to fork. Although many Mac users and  
developers have long encouraged us to fork Asterisk to create a more  
Mac friendly version, we felt that the effort maintaining a fork  
would likely have diverted further away from the goal to create a  
package with an integrated native GUI.

Before this background, we found that if we had decided to fork  
Asterisk, then the list of things we would have wanted to do is  
almost identical to the list of things the OpenPBX.org project has  
either already achieved or is work in progress or is on the wish  
list. Therefore, rather than creating a fork, it made more sense to  
join this project and thereby avoid forking.

However, we do intend to use the native MacOS X build system (Xcode)  
instead of the OpenPBX.org build system which is based on GNU  
autotools. In addition, we intend to provide a MacOS X native GUI and  
there will be some Mac specific plugin modules, too. Further, the on- 
hold music we have licensed for our distribution is only licensed for  
use within our project.

Thus, the telephony engine itself will be common, while the build  
system, the GUI, some of the plugins and the on-hold music will be  
Mac specific.

Last but not least, there are two other, lesser known uses of the  
name "OpenPBX". This alone was reason enough to seek to establish a  
different identity for our Mac PBX software distribution.


> I am torn (as I have said) between a true "mac-like" telecom setup,
> and keeping up with current releases/features/bugfixes.

The choice of building your own telephony server from sources will  
always be there. In fact you have more choices now than ever before:  
Asterisk, Bayonne, FreeSwitch and OpenPBX.org can all be built on  
MacOS X with various levels of effort.

hope this answers your questions
Sunrise Telephone Systems Ltd.