I agree for the most part but I think the amount of users using apache / gimp / samba and the quality of support behind those is actually really good. The documentation and config files are dense but well commented and most things make some sense. Granted.htaccess files, virtual hosts and other features may not be idiot proof but just typing.htaccess into your search engine of choice brings up plenty of help.
I am also quite guilty of not writing documentation for the software I write (and work in the same general business area). As a technical user/programmer if something isn't the least bit obvious to me or most people not involved in the programming process there is probably something wrong with it. That said, the Asterisk GUI and it's lead programmer are both quite a bit ahead of the curve but as just one guy with a little help progress is obviously not quick on such a large project.
Perhaps just setting up webinars or hypotheticals would do wonders for the asterisk / digium folks?
I work at a small company between 15-20 people total including interns, cleaning staff, and others. While we have 3 people that normally answer the phones sometimes they aren't available. If they can't answer the phone it doesn't make sense for the call to go unanswered while the rest of us are there. Instead of having to have all the phones ring or having to have someone run over to the phone it would be nice to have the line light up and be picked up anywhere. In a business with more than 3-4 lines I agree this is silly but in a smaller business this feature really is crucial. I know I could setup ring groups or have everyones phones ring and then transfer or a few other options but why change what works well and why retrain a staff (be it small) when they already know how to use something that is pretty much industry standard and supposed in almost every pay-for version out there.
I thought the goal of open source was to provide a free implementation that was just as good that people could see the code and work on the code. Telling people that the code is too hard to write so they should find another way and retrain people just isn't the open source spirit.
Call parking is only a solution if you have a secretary at the same desk during all office hours but thank you for the suggestion.
Having spent the last few weeks setting up Asterisk and such i've found a few things major to most smaller companies that it doesn't do well. For one, SLA or Shared Line Appearance (aka, everyone can see who's on line 1, pick up the call and answer it). While the code exists it's hard to use, the documentation is poor, and the people in the IRC channel only manage to mock those who don't know that the secret lies in a pdf buried in the subversion source code and will only expend the energy to type out some cryptic code to their bot that points you at the same tired document that doesn't answer your questions.
The SLA in Asterisk *works* if you have the right equipment and the time to set it up but Linksys does it one way, Aastra another, and Polycom one more. The goals of the Asterisk project seem alright but the developers seem to have it all wrong. Rather than focusing on the features users want and getting them right they are kinda hacking it all together and deciding it needs to be worked on later. Rather than making it run well on most systems, they sacrifice things to make it run on the 133mhz machine hiding in Edison's garage. I know making it light on memory is important as too much will make voice quality horrible but there comes a point when the user side of things has to be more important.
My last gripe with Asterisk is that there are a few different people working on different versions all at the same time seemingly getting nowhere. Take Asterisk, elastix, FreePBX, OpenPBX, and whatever else may be out there and get all the devs to work together and get it up to something that feels mainstream and open source worthy. Asterisk is a great project but it's still got a ways to go before it's ready for massive rollouts. The only reason i'm setting one up is that the current BizFone system we have crapped out and has been crap from day one.
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I agree for the most part but I think the amount of users using apache / gimp / samba and the quality of support behind those is actually really good. The documentation and config files are dense but well commented and most things make some sense. Granted .htaccess files, virtual hosts and other features may not be idiot proof but just typing .htaccess into your search engine of choice brings up plenty of help.
I am also quite guilty of not writing documentation for the software I write (and work in the same general business area). As a technical user/programmer if something isn't the least bit obvious to me or most people not involved in the programming process there is probably something wrong with it. That said, the Asterisk GUI and it's lead programmer are both quite a bit ahead of the curve but as just one guy with a little help progress is obviously not quick on such a large project.
Perhaps just setting up webinars or hypotheticals would do wonders for the asterisk / digium folks?
I work at a small company between 15-20 people total including interns, cleaning staff, and others. While we have 3 people that normally answer the phones sometimes they aren't available. If they can't answer the phone it doesn't make sense for the call to go unanswered while the rest of us are there. Instead of having to have all the phones ring or having to have someone run over to the phone it would be nice to have the line light up and be picked up anywhere. In a business with more than 3-4 lines I agree this is silly but in a smaller business this feature really is crucial. I know I could setup ring groups or have everyones phones ring and then transfer or a few other options but why change what works well and why retrain a staff (be it small) when they already know how to use something that is pretty much industry standard and supposed in almost every pay-for version out there. I thought the goal of open source was to provide a free implementation that was just as good that people could see the code and work on the code. Telling people that the code is too hard to write so they should find another way and retrain people just isn't the open source spirit. Call parking is only a solution if you have a secretary at the same desk during all office hours but thank you for the suggestion.
Having spent the last few weeks setting up Asterisk and such i've found a few things major to most smaller companies that it doesn't do well. For one, SLA or Shared Line Appearance (aka, everyone can see who's on line 1, pick up the call and answer it). While the code exists it's hard to use, the documentation is poor, and the people in the IRC channel only manage to mock those who don't know that the secret lies in a pdf buried in the subversion source code and will only expend the energy to type out some cryptic code to their bot that points you at the same tired document that doesn't answer your questions. The SLA in Asterisk *works* if you have the right equipment and the time to set it up but Linksys does it one way, Aastra another, and Polycom one more. The goals of the Asterisk project seem alright but the developers seem to have it all wrong. Rather than focusing on the features users want and getting them right they are kinda hacking it all together and deciding it needs to be worked on later. Rather than making it run well on most systems, they sacrifice things to make it run on the 133mhz machine hiding in Edison's garage. I know making it light on memory is important as too much will make voice quality horrible but there comes a point when the user side of things has to be more important. My last gripe with Asterisk is that there are a few different people working on different versions all at the same time seemingly getting nowhere. Take Asterisk, elastix, FreePBX, OpenPBX, and whatever else may be out there and get all the devs to work together and get it up to something that feels mainstream and open source worthy. Asterisk is a great project but it's still got a ways to go before it's ready for massive rollouts. The only reason i'm setting one up is that the current BizFone system we have crapped out and has been crap from day one.