R.I.P. Sangoma's Nosedive

wardmundy

wardmundy

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Large corporations see no value in free open-source software. It is an expense, not a revenue stream. If Sangoma doesn't either (1) put some money into development and support of FOSS products (Asterisk and FreePBX) or (2) relinquish the two products to a consortium or company which is willing to put the effort and money into it, there is little future for either product or those who use Asterisk as their base system.

Of all the existential threats we've seen regarding FreePBX and Asterisk, ignoring the product until it dies is the worst.

I agree that if a takeover cannot be negotiated by someone, a fork needs to take place. Such a fork would also take people, time and money to keep it going so I'm not sure "free" open source will be possible. I like how VitalPBX charges minimal licenses and has sales for their product but it is still too expensive for many. I would not object to some sort of pricing which would go to the support and advancement of the products. People who need commercial modules would still be left holding the bag unless replacements were developed by a new organization.
 
Wait, if Asterisk dies doesn't VitalPBX die? And how did Asterisk get dragged into this?
 
No different than private equity buying up hospital systems, then selling the land to make the hospital pay rent, and also reducing staff, closing Ob services, etc. Maximize short term profit to pay the loan and move on. Hospital goes bankrupt. People lose access to healthcare.

Back in the 1800's when nearly all of the USA comprised farmers, trades people, and individual self employed persons, the idea of what a corporation should be was a transient entity that combined resources in an effort to serve a specific public need. It devolved into a private entity serving only the profits of its owner. Then came waves of economic depressions such as insider trading (which was not illegal until the early 1900's) and other huge financial gambits by the likes of Vanderbilt to amass money and power.

Can't we have some balance? How much is enough? Sorry to rant. I've seen healthcare in USA spiral down over the past 25 years of my career which pains me to see.
 
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dghundt said:
I've seen healthcare in USA spiral down over the past 25 years
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I agree. Our hospital system was bought out by HCA and immediately ruined. Patient's cost of services doubled. 90% of tenured doctors left due to pay cuts. Now a single nurse is overseeing 24 patient rooms, delivering food and emptying the trash. Patients are all moving to other healthcare systems due to poor support. Non-profit to for-profit to oblivion.
 
kenn10 said:
Large corporations see no value in free open-source software. It is an expense, not a revenue stream. If Sangoma doesn't either (1) put some money into development and support of FOSS products (Asterisk and FreePBX) or (2) relinquish the two products to a consortium or company which is willing to put the effort and money into it, there is little future for either product or those who use Asterisk as their base system.

Of all the existential threats we've seen regarding FreePBX and Asterisk, ignoring the product until it dies is the worst.

I agree that if a takeover cannot be negotiated by someone, a fork needs to take place. Such a fork would also take people, time and money to keep it going so I'm not sure "free" open source will be possible. I like how VitalPBX charges minimal licenses and has sales for their product but it is still too expensive for many. I would not object to some sort of pricing which would go to the support and advancement of the products. People who need commercial modules would still be left holding the bag unless replacements were developed by a new organization.
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Surprisingly, Oracle is still developing Java, VirtualBox, and MySQL. I think there is a reason for that though.

“If an open source product gets good enough, we’ll simply take it and include it in our products, and charge for support.”
 
I always thought charging for support and branded devices was the Sangoma FreePbx/Asterisk angle, but I guess it didn't work out well enough?
 
dghundt said:
I always thought charging for support and branded devices was the Sangoma FreePbx/Asterisk angle, but I guess it didn't work out well enough?
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Support, training, services. That's how you make money in open source. People will not buy any of these things out of the goodness of their heart. They buy them because they have value. People spend their money where there is value. There is no value in the support or training they are providing so I have to imagine they are trying to make their whole budget on services. Bit those services are backed by the same unknowledgeable inexperienced team. Now having a low pay team with inexperienced staff can work if they have an escalation path. Then the engineering team ends up doing heavy lifting. But hey why not eliminate all your engineering team and just let your support staff do the work. I mean this stuff can all be done by AI now right. Fun fact if your customers are getting AI level support and service they have no need to pay you. They can skip the middle man.
 
Looking on your website.
Are there support packages for ClearlyIP onsite PBX systems? I see support ticket process, but not a support package. I'm sure I just didn't look hard enough.

p.s.
lovin' your fax ATA and services.
 
I don't see pricing for it but on their "Contact Us" page, FreePBX enterprise support is one of the things you can request a quote on.
1736968842706.png
 
dghundt said:
Looking on your website.
Are there support packages for ClearlyIP onsite PBX systems? I see support ticket process, but not a support package. I'm sure I just didn't look hard enough.

p.s.
lovin' your fax ATA and services.
Click to expand...
We do offer support services we actually have some familiar faces on our support team. That said I don't do sales so you would have to contact them I don't know how any of it works
 
hecatae said:
Plus MikoPBX and IssabelPBX and 3CX
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The Asterisk and FreePBX teams are completely separate. Chatting with jcolp who is on the Asterisk team, says he has no idea what goes on in FreePBX side of things.
 
KNERD said:
The Asterisk and FreePBX teams are completely separate. Chatting with jcolp who is on the Asterisk team, says he has no idea what goes on in FreePBX side of things.
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First, jcolp just isn't on the Asterisk team, he is the Asterisk Project Lead. Second, the reply to your attempt to get a comment was "I don't have any comments". That reply in no way indicts the level of knowledge jcolp has of the FreePBX project.
 
then what command do I use to install the Instruct 13b model?
Samot said:
First, jcolp just isn't on the Asterisk team, he is the Asterisk Project Lead. Second, the reply to your attempt to get a comment was "I don't have any comments". That reply in no way indicts the level of knowledge jcolp has of the FreePBX project.
Click to expand...
Clearly, you missed other discussions I had with him
 
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