[Mac-telephony-list] Asterisk/OpenPBX on Mac vs. Linux

[Tom Rymes via List]

On Dec 21, 2006, at 1:27 AM, Benjamin Kowarsch via List wrote:

> On Dec 21, 2006, at 10:18 AM, Tom Rymes via List wrote:
>
>> OpenPBX
>> 1.) Not "stable" software
>
> And what do you mean by "stable" ?

Well, I put the quotation marks around stable on purpose. I know that  
Asterisk is not 100% reliable, and I don't mean to imply that OpenPBX  
is less reliable than Asterisk. However, OPBX is still a release  
candidate, and OPBX on Mac is certainly not ready for prime-time (the  
CLI doesn't work, for instance.) Even if that bug is fixed this  
afternoon, then I certainly wouldn't want to install a production  
server (especially for something so important as a business PBX!) on  
software that doesn't really have a reasonably well proven track  
record. In a couple of months, once a final version of OPBX is out  
and it has been in use for a while so we know that there aren't any  
other significant bugs out there, then my opinion will certainly change.

I am excited about OPBX, given what I have heard, but before I go and  
bet my business on it, I want to make sure it is officially released  
and has been running in the wild without any significant bugs.

> Do you mean a stable API which doesn't change all the time to the
> effect that stuff breaks?

[snipped lots of valid points about philosophical differences between  
Asterisk and OPBX development.]

> Or do you perhaps mean stable as in reliable?
>
> Asterisk is very much bleeding edge and with that comes a certain
> level of continuous instability. OpenPBX.org aims not to be bleeding
> edge. Development work over the last year has mostly been under the
> hood. For example, several inferior Digium re-inventions of the wheel
> have been replaced with proven off-the-shelf wheels and this process
> is ongoing. As a result, the superior wheels which have already made
> their way into OpenPBX.org have already made it a smoother ride even
> before the first public release.
>
> Many people who have replaced Asterisk production systems with
> OpenPBX.org have reported that it is more reliable and many issues
> which troubled them before have disappeared. Often, the OpenPBX.org
> developers aren't even aware of these issues, either because they
> have been introduced to Asterisk after the fork, or because they
> disappeared from OpenPBX.org as a result of replacing those re-
> invented wheels.

This is all valid, and why I am beginning to think that OPBx will  
eclipse Asterisk at some point in the future. However, see my remarks  
above.

> Whatever your definition of "stable" may be, the chance is that the
> statement "not stable" applies at least as much to Asterisk as it
> would apply to OpenPBX.org. I suspect your perception is the single
> most contributing factor to making that statement.

Perhaps the word I should have used is "Proven". What I mean is that  
OPBX at this point in time is still not oficially released and, on  
the mac OS, at least, is still in need of additional baking before I  
would bet my business on it. Keep in mind that if my phones go down,  
my business is sunk.

>> 2.) Not fully functional on Mac OS yet (The CLI does not work on
>> Mac OS)
>
> This is a relatively minor bug and it will soon be fixed.

I would consider a non-functional CLI a fundamental flaw.

>> 3.) Unicall not yet complete, so no PCI cards
>
> It's not the Unicall part which is missing. It's the drivers.

My point is that PCI cards don't work yet. Again, a major drawback  
IMHO. Once Unical and all of the drivers, etc are working, then I  
expect it will be superior to Zaptel, but until then, it's still non- 
functional and not ready for any of my production servers.

My main point was simply this:

"If you are planning on building a PBX in the next 30-90 days, I  
would recommend that you use Asterisk and run Linux on PPC mac or  
standard PC hardware. If you plan on deploying a PBX beyond that  
timeframe, then evaluate the progress of OPBX and make an informed  
decision at that time. Most importantly, since a business PBX is so  
important, be reasonably conservative and don't be the first to  
deploy new software, hardware, etc in a production environment.  
Please DO deploy on test servers, etc and help out with development  
if you can, but save the experimentation for non-production servers."

That's it. I'm excited by the promise of OPBX, Unicall integration,  
and all that you guys are doing. Once it's complete and proven, it  
sounds like it will be a major improvement over the Asterisk status  
quo; I just don't think it's ready for production *yet*.

Tom