SCALE7x: Open source in an economic downturn [LWN.net]

SCALE7x: Open source in an economic downturn

Posted Feb 25, 2009 21:52 UTC (Wed) by dkite (guest, #4577)
In reply to: SCALE7x: Open source in an economic downturn by philterry
Parent article: SCALE7x: Open source in an economic downturn

Don't get hung up on the free as in beer. That aspect is a unique response to the
competitive and market environment in which free software has grown. It would
have been impossible for any of the rich environments to exist.

I started in computing when a single use piece of software cost $3-400, and many
paid willingly. Now that almost buys a machine reasonably well equipped, the profit
coming from very large volume of sales.

In VOIP, these people are selling their services. It's very easy to come underneath
the likes of Nortel and still make good money.

Derek

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SCALE7x: Open source in an economic downturn

Posted Feb 25, 2009 23:38 UTC (Wed) by rahvin (subscriber, #16953) [Link]

Phones are one of those systems where they just have to work 100% of the time. Maybe we are spoiled because when MaBell ran things and the government strictly regulated her the performance standards were set VERY high. Most landlines still work even hours into a blackout because of these effects these regulations had on the infrastructure the baby bells deploy.

As a result the IP phone technology is almost guaranteed to require support contracts because when the phones go down business often stops. The only think worse than losing the phones in an office is power failure.

Asterisk and PSTN

Posted Feb 27, 2009 9:43 UTC (Fri) by Cato (subscriber, #7643) [Link]

Good points about IP phones, but it's worth noting that many Asterisk resellers seem to install pure PSTN solutions not just VoIP - analogue or digital phones plus standard PSTN/ISDN into the telco. The reason is presumably that it's a drop-in replacement for a more expensive PBX and can still provide new features to these phones (e.g. ACD, smarter routing, etc), as well as to new IP phones.

Buying a lot of IP phones is pretty expensive compared to just replacing a PBX and its associated maintenance fees.