Fonality acquires trixbox

Fonality will announce tomorrow that they have acquired trixbox, formerly known as Asterisk@Home, and the the world's largest Asterisk-based community. Trixbox is a turn-key, bootable .iso CD image that can turn a PC with no OS into an Asterisk server with a variety of open source tools in just a few minutes. The trixbox application lets someone download a bootable .iso image that then automatically installs Linux, Asterisk, SugarCRM, MySQL, FreePBX, and a whole variety of other applications. Trixbox fully supports the Linux yum command and RPM ecosystem for performing updates and bug fixes.

Essentially, trixbox uses the latest and greatest version of Asterisk. Within 48 hours of a new Asterisk version, you see a new release of trixbox and they add their own host of patches they they put on top of that. These are basically patches of innovators inside the Asterisk community that didn't want to sign a double waiver. The double waiver extends the GPL agreement by stating the code has to also be given to Digium.

I spoke with Chris Lyman, the CEO of Fonality earlier this afternoon to talk about the acquisition of trixbox. He began by wondering how I figured out Fonality and trixbox were working closely together.

Chris: I don't know how you figured out on June 6th that we were getting involved with trixbox, but my hat goes off to you.

Tom: I recalled that I was wondering why Fonality would offer their hudlite, a real-time call control and presence management platform that works with the commercial (paid) Fonality PBXtra. I didn't understand why Fonality would want to make a "free" version of Asterisk (trixbox) more "feature-rich". Curious what the relationship was between Fonality and trixbox, I I did some detective work. Besides googling I also did registrar 'whois' lookups on hudlite.org (Fonality website) and trixbox.org and noticed that the IP addresses were the same - in other words - the same web server. Interesting to say the least, which is what sparked my June 6th post.

In my June 6th post, I pondered, "Did Fonality buy out the rights to Asterisk@Home and then change the name to Trixbox.org? What does this mean for the popular open-source Asterisk@Home distro (now Trixbox) considering Fonality is a for-profit Asterisk solutions provider? Is the plan to try and convert Trixbox users (generally novice Linux users) into paying Fonality users? Fonality certainly focuses on businesses that have little or no Linux experts, so there is certainly a potential synergy there. Well, the mystery continues... I'll post more when I hear back from Chris @Fonality." Chris Lyman and Andrew Gillis responded in a follow-up article.

In any event, it appears the seeds were sown for this acquisition back in June and that I was 4 months early in my pondering whether Fonality had acquired trixbox.

Tom: So what about the double waiver requirement to give the code back to Digium? Is this an advantage of trixbox since it doesn't have a double waiver?

Chris: There are a number of open source innovators that don't like that -- like faxing. The only reason why fax isn't in Asterisk, but they are using it in trixbox, is because the smart guy that made it (fax code) didn't want to sign that waiver over to Digium. So basically consider trixbox the latest greatest Asterisk plus a whole lot of innovation.

Tom: So what market are you going after with trixbox?

Chris: So in terms of what market we're going after with trixbox, we're not really going after a market. trixbox is really a community of Asterisk innovators and we're just going to be supporting that community. It's our way of supporting the platform that has been a big part of our success.

Tom: What is the value that trixbox brings to Fonality?

Chris: The value to Fonality is the community value.  The business value that trixbox brings is that there is probably a number of IT directors lurking in the trixbox community that are sort of trying for free, but really do want a commercial company to hold their hand when they roll out. And so we just want to make ourselves known that there is an option to go fully supported.

Tom: So by working within the community you hope to build brand awareness for your commercial-based Fonality PBXtra?

Chris: Yes, we want to build some brand awareness in the Asterisk community to let them know we are a serious player that has a 100% supported, 100% service model.

Chris: The trixbox forums has over 20,000 posts in the last 3 months. It has become the defacto place to get questions answered about Asterisk. Questions answered about rolling an open-source small business environment. And that's really the value we saw is - there are a lot of smart open-source people in that community.

Tom: What are the download numbers?

Chris: 1,500 people download trixbox every day, which is more than Digium. Mark was quoted in a Forbes article as saying 1,000 downloads per day and we were surprised since we averaged 50% more than that.

Tom: Any issues with people knowing about the trixbox brand and knowing that is the latest and greatest version of Asterisk?

Chris: I would say given our download numbers and given the fact that we get more downloads of Asterisk every day more than the rest of the world combined, I would say no, there is no brand problem.

Tom: So how is Fonality going to contribute to trixbox with this investment?

Chris: There's two things that are really really important for us to let the world and the community know. Number one is, trixbox was free, is free, and will always be free. And when I say, I mean pure GPL. It won't have a double waiver, you won't have to sign over any rights to Fonality, and we're not going to get into any of those complicated licensing schemes that you see with some other open source companies. Number two, we're contributing broad financial support to the trixbox platform to continue to improve that application. This is not just a community of that site that we're going to pay the bandwidth on. We actually have a host of engineers internally working on improving trixbox.

Tom: On a different note, any thoughts about integrating SugarCRM, MySQL, etc. onto the Fonality PBXtra hybrid-CPE-hosted solution for an "all in one box"?

Chris: Now that we are very much looking into. We've had talks with SugarCRM about it. Looking at ways of linking PBXtra and SugarCRM's contact center together on one box. That is a product you will probably see in the future from Fonality. I will say, my message to any business, be careful of how much load you point on a single server since it becomes a single point of failure for your business.

Tom: I know the Fonality code is a more secure and stable version of Asterisk but running an older Asterisk codebase, yet without sacrificing functionality. So I was wondering what percentage of code that is in trixbox is going to come back to Fonality?

Chris: Today, it is 0% because our version of Asterisk has been hardened aggressively over the last two and a half years. We think there may be a time if the Trixbox community requests it where we might give our version of our code to the community and call it you know, "stable". But really, more than anything the community wants the latest and greatest features and are willing to sacrifice a little bit of reliability to get there. And so unless we see a great need, we're not going to mix the two different flavors.

end interview...

One final point of note is that trixbox founder Andrew Gillis will join Fonality and continue to lead the trixbox community. The main takeways from this news is that Fonality will commit engineering resources and financial support to trixbox, and just as importantly, trixbox will continue to be 100% GPL without a double-waiver. Trixbox founder Andrew Gillis said, "Fonality shares my vision of making Asterisk free and easy for everyone. They have already proven to me how serious they are by committing a team of engineers to help create the next version of trixbox.

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Tags: asterisk, fonality, freepbx, linux, mysql, sugarcrm, trixbox, voip
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on October 3rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP and Asterisk and Linux and mysql and fonality and trixbox.

Firefox VoIP extension

Seems like everyone and his brother is developing VoIP extensions for Firefox. I wrote about Zoep which adds a VoIP extension to Firefox. It appears that Zoep's website is no longer available, so that project may have been killed. Openwengo is yet another VoIP player offering a VoIP extension to Firefox. Today, I was given a heads-up by Luca Filigheddu that AbbeyNetLabs, a VoIP service provider has just released VoIP extensions for Firefox and Thunderbird that runs on both Mac and Linux. (A Windows version of their Firefox VoIP extension is already out.) The software is called AbbeyPhone and it is SIP-compliant.

Continue reading Firefox VoIP extension...

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Tags: extension, firefox, linux, mac, voip
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 8th, 2006 with no comments.
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Paragon hipi dual-mode GSM phone

Paragon Wireless released the world first commercial GSM/VoWLAN dual-mode smart phone, hipi, in March 2006 and was my pick to be a winner in this years' TMC Labs Innovation Awards. With a tri-band GSM/GPRS (Class 10) radio and an IEEE 802.11b WLAN chipset, hipi enables users to enjoy broadband multimedia services at WLAN covered homes, offices, hot spots/zones as well as reliable GSM/GPRS service anytime anywhere. Featuring a 2.4 inch TFT touch screen, QVGA, with 260k Colors, the hipi also supports STUN-based NAT traversal, the SIP standard, as well as G.711, G.729a/b, and G.723 codecs. It even has some gadgety-bling via it's built-in MP3 player and a QVGA/QCIF camera. The hipi can perform SIP-based seamless handover between GSM/VoWLAN. Importantly, it utilizes a unified phone book for both GSM and VoWLAN dialing and a unified GUI for the main applications i.e. phone, E-mail, QQ (IM), and browser.

EXCLUSIVE! The current hipi is based on Linux, but I asked about a Windows Mobile 5 version since there are many popular 3rd party applications written for Windows Mobile and they said that a Windows model was indeed in the works - with some beta trials currently and plans for release later this year. You heard it here first - the first dual-mode Windows Mobile 5 phone out later this year! According to Paragon, the Windows-version will have comparable battery/performance characteristics of their current Linux model.

The hipi has excellent performance in power management, mobility management, security, mobile VoIP, and voice quality. hipi has passed most of regulation certification programs and has done interoperability testing with over 40 VoIP service providers, system integrators, and infrastructure equipment vendors worldwide. Standby time >100 Hours (GSM on, WLAN on) >200 Hours (GSM on, WLAN off). Talk time on VoWLAN is 3.3 Hours and for GSM it's 7.8 Hours. With such excellent battery talk times and standby - even with two radios operating - hipi is an ideal device for fixed mobile convergence. Check out the specs...

Hardware Specification (Linux model)
• Intel PXA271 processor with embedded Linux
• 2.4 inch TFT touch screen, QVGA, 260k Colors
• Built-in speaker/microphone, 2.4mm stereo and headset
• 1.3M pixel CMOS camera
• USB slave
• Mini SD
• 1100 mAh Li-ion battery

GSM Specification
• Frequency bands: 900/1800/1900 MHz
• GPRS Class 10
• SMS, MMS, WAP applications
• FTA/CTA certification
• FCC/CE certification

WLAN Specification
• IEEE 802.11b
• RF channels: US: 11, ETSI: 13, Japan: 14
• High-gain internal antenna
• WEP 64/128 bits, WPA, 802.1x
• EAP PSK/LEAP/PEAP/TTLS/SIM
• Power saving modes
• Fast roaming between access points

VoIP Specification
• SIP: IETF RFC 3261
• Codec: G.711, G.729a/b, G.723
• Acoustic echo cancellation
• Dynamic jitter buffer
• Voice activity detection
• Stun-based NAT traversal

Input Methods
• Handwriting Recognition > English > Chinese > Numeric characters
• Soft Keypads > Qwerty > Standard phone dialpad > Symbol

Power Management Features
• Standby time >100 Hours (GSM on, WLAN on) > 200 Hours (GSM on, WLAN off)
• Talk time > VoWLAN: 3.3 Hours > GSM: 7.8 Hours
• MP3 play time > 5.8 Hours (GSM on, WLAN on) > 6.2 Hours (GSM on, WLAN off)

Fixed Mobile Convergence Features
• Simultaneously activated GSM and WLAN air interfaces
• Handling simultaneously GSM and VoWLAN incoming calls
• SIP-based seamless handover between GSM/VoWLAN
• Automatic/manual switch for out-going calls between GSM and VoWLAN
• Automatic/manual switch for data applications using GPRS or WLAN
• Unified phone book for both GSM and VoWLAN.
• Unified GUI for applications (phone, E-mail, browser, QQ)

Call Features
• Call hold
• Call waiting
• Call mute
• Call forward
• Call transfer
• 3-way conference
• Voice mail
• SMS over SIP
• Phone book - (1000 entries with photos)
• Incoming call prompt with picture
• View phonebook during call
• Enter sketch pad during call
• Adjust volume during call
• Auto-answer/flip answer
• Quick silence
• Turbo dial
• Manual/Auto/Earphone redial
• Call history (20 entries) Data Application Features
• POP3 E-mail client (SSL support) > 100 full E-mails with attachments up to 200KB > Document viewer for MS-Office and PDF files
• Web browser: HTML4.01, JAVAScript1.5, SSL3.0, HTTP1.1, CSS1.0
• Instant messaging: QQ Multimedia Features
• Video format: MP4, 3GPP
• Audio format: MP3, WAV, MIDI, AMR
• Picture format: WBMP, BMP, JPEG, GIF
• Camcorder: QVGA, QCIF
• Media Player > Audio: MP3 player > Video: up to 30 frames/second QVGA MP4/3GPP PIM Features
• Calendar
• Schedule management
• Alarm clock
• Voice recorder
• World time
• Currency converter
• Anniversary Other Features
• English <-> Chinese dictionary
• Calculator
• World time
• Notepad
• Sketch pad
• File transfer
• Counter
• Timer

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Tags: dual mode, hipi, linux, mobile phone, sip, voip, wifi, windows mobile 5, wireless
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on July 23rd, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP and Mobile Phones and Wireless and WiFi and SIP and Linux and mobile phone and dual mode and hipi and windows mobile 5.

Skype for Linux 1.3 beta news

There is a new release of Skype for Linux v1.3 (in beta) that was announced today. It's been awhile since Skype released a new version for the Linux operating system (last year in fact). One of the highlighted features includes support for the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) sound system, which Jaanus points out is one of the most requested features by the Linux community. X11 API was added, and the "latest-greatest" emoticons as well as flags are supported in this release. Mood messages were also added. It doesn't appear the Linux Skype client supports videoconferencing still. Bummer.

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Tags: alsa, jaanus, linux, skype, x11
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on June 28th, 2006 with no comments.
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Trixbox 1.0 replaces Asterisk@Home

Apparently, development on Asterisk@Home, the "turnkey" Asterisk solution with many third-party add-ons pre-installed has ended. However, the developers have created a new product called Trixbox. Just like Asterisk@Home, Trixbox is a complete Asterisk PBX including, a Linux OS, Asterisk PBX software, a Web GUI, and many other useful add-ons. As with Asterisk@Home, Trixbox can be quickly installed in less than an hour.

Besides being reminded of that wacky Trix rabbit character, I'd be curious why the need for the name change, especially since Trixbox is based on the same exact source code as Asterisk@Home. I liked the Asterisk@Home name - it gave the product a connotation of being "easy" to use and install. (e.g. even a "home" user could install it, or it was designed for a "home installation" by a hobbyist or entrepreneur.)

I can speculate that my pal Mark Spencer over at Digium sent Asterisk@Home a "cease & desist letter" to protect his trademark. Although, I'm not sure if Mark even has a trademark on the brand "Asterisk". I'll have to shoot him off an email and ask. But if he does, then you can't blame him if he is indeed trying to protect his brand. If you don't vigorously protect your brand and it becomes watered down and used by everyone, then you can lose your rights to the trademark. This whole point may be moot since I believe you can't trademark GPL open-source code projects. Where's a trademark lawyer when you need one?

[Update: I received an email from Ward Mundy stating that Digium did give permission to use the Asterisk@Home name. He stated "Asterisk@Home was suitable for home and business use. A lot of customers were apparently put off by the @Home moniker." I suppose I can see the @Home moniker hurting its "business-class" image.]

In any event, the latest release of Trixbox 1.0 (technically Asterisk@Home v3.0) was released on May 31st (less than a week ago). Interestingly enough, I noticed that Fonality is offering their HUDLite softphone client for Trixbox. I just shot off an email to Chris Lyman over at Fonality to see what exactly the relationship is between Fonality and Trixbox, especially since I could have sworn that I saw Fonality as the one that registered the trixbox.org domain.

However, when I checked the whois database today, it's registered to one of those "anonymizing" proxy domain registrars with a date stating it just changed on 6/5/06 (just 2 days ago). I then did some more investigating to see if I could figure out who owned trixbox.org. I won't get into too many details on how I figured it out, but suffice to say I did a whois on www.hudlite.org, which is registered to Fonality, Inc. I then looked at the IP address for this whois record and it displayed "66.234.135.90". I then do a whois on trixbox.org and lo' and behold the IP addresses were the same! Apparently trixbox.org and www.hudlite.org are running on the same web server and using the host header to figure out which web page to display.

Did Fonality by out the rights to Asterisk@Home and then change the name to Trixbox.org? What does this mean for the popular open-source Asterisk@Home distro (now Trixbox) considering Fonality is a for-profit Asterisk solutions provider? Is the plan to try and convert Trixbox users (generally novice Linux users) into paying Fonality users? Fonality certainly focuses on businesses that have little or no Linux experts, so there is certainly a potential synergy there. Well, the mystery continues... I'll post more when I hear back from Chris @Fonality.

Finally, Nerd Vittles has an excellent three-part series on how to install Trixbox along with FreePBX, a web-based GUI add-on for making Asterisk easy to manage. If you ever wanted to try Asterisk, but find Linux a bit daunting, then head on over to Nerd Vittles and try the tutorial.

p.s. Silly Windows users, Trixbox is for Linux!

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Tags: asterisk@home, fonality, linux, open source, trixbox 1.0, voip
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on June 7th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP and Asterisk and Linux and fonality and asterisk@home and open source and trixbox 1.0.

Asterisk Business Edition B.1 Released

Digium today announced a major upgrade of its Asterisk Business Edition, the professional-grade version of Asterisk. Called Asterisk Business Edition B.1, the upgraded release includes enhanced security and scalability provided by Ranch Network's Asterisk security code, speech recognition capabilities through the LumenVox Speech Engine, text-to-speech applications through the Cepstral Text-to-Speech System and a customized Linux distribution to simplify installation. Asterisk Business Edition B.1 will also feature built-in support for Intel Dialogic Products and Aculab Prosody X cards.  

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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on June 5th, 2006 with no comments.
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Fedora Core 5 is out

I had no idea Fedora Core 5 was out. I downloaded Fedora Core 5 test2 like 3 weeks ago and played around with the beta. Was thinking about living dangerously and using the beta version for the migration of TMC's current MovableType installation (Windows). Well, lo and behold I'm happily surfing the web when I find this post from 4 days ago announcing Fedore Core 5 is out. Damn, and I just downloaded the 4 CDs just 3 weeks ago. Time for me to run to my nearest Fedora Core mirror (or maybe I'll Bittorrent it) before everyone else finds out and slows the download to a crawl. Or maybe I'm the last to know? To quote Airplane! William Shatner, "Why the hell aren't I notified about these things?"

Here's the post announcing the news:

Hi, my name is Fedora Core "Bordeaux", and today I am 5. When I turned 4 last year, they got a funny salesman to talk about me like I was a toy. I like toys. But today Teacher said I am a big kid, and I should talk about myself. I can do lots of big kid stuff now, and everyone tells me that I play really well with all the other kids in class, even the ones who are mean like bullies. I always try and share, which is what Teacher says is the best thing.
Sharing is a really good thing to do. I like to share all my toys and books and stuff with all the other kids so that they can play with them and even learn things, too. I have a lot of neat stuff to share, so I made this cool list to tell you all about it. Teacher gave me some things to put in the list, but since I'm a big kid I think I should get to say what I want, too.

* GNOME 2.14
"Improved speed and usability, and new and better features for power management, file sharing, user help, system administration, teleconferencing, picture browsing, and networking." I think it's easy enough for even my little brother to use, but Mommy and Daddy like it a lot too.

* OpenOffice 2.0.2
"Enhanced productivity features, extensive compatibility with other popular office software, database connectivity functions, and improved use of system libraries for faster loading and better responsiveness overall." Mommy says she can make slide shows for work even easier than before, and Daddy uses it to organizes all our books, music, and movies in databases.

* KDE 3.5.1
"New and exciting features for users and developers, including stylish and attractive applets, educational and entertaining games, incredibly standards-compliant Internet tools, and enhanced multimedia and usability." Plus it looks REALLY cool, especially when my big sister fixes it just the way she likes.

* Mono
"Support for .NET means a new generation of dynamic and powerful cross-platform applications, with some already included, such as Tomboy for note-taking, F-Spot for photo management, and Beagle for content searching and indexing." See, I told you I'm really good at sharing! Plus, I don't ever have a problem remembering or finding things, like pictures, homework, or messages. Mommy says she's really proud of me.

* Yum-based Package Tools
"Installation and software management tools are all based on the flexible and powerful yum utility for easy selection and upgrade of new and existing software." And soon, I'll even be able to get my own special software at install time!
* Xen Virtualization
"The best framework yet for installation, management, migration, and monitoring of software-based virtual domains, allowing system owners to effectively leverage and force-multiply existing hardware for maximum efficiency, scalability, redundancy, and flexibility." Teacher says I get more work done faster than any other kid in our class, too.
 
* Apache HTTP Server 2.2
"Enhanced authentication, database support, proxy facilities, and content filtering, all built on the most stable and customizable platform for Web services."
* Enhanced Security
"Support for SELinux binary policy modules means that users and developers can now ship their own specialized policies with affected software. GCC's best of breed features, such as stack protection, NX, PIE, and compile-time buffer checks, pile on additional layers of assurance to effectively block illegal ingress." I know all my safety rules, and Mommy and Daddy say that it's really, REALLY hard for monsters to get in our house!

So at school, I got awards for "Best Attendance," "Teacher's Pet," "Honor Roll," and "Good Manners," plus Teacher lets me stay after to clean the erasers until Daddy comes to pick me up. He always tells me how good I am compared to the other kids he knows and that he's really proud of me. He says it's because I'm 100% free and open source, and because I always try to do the right thing just like he and Mommy taught me.
I told him I didn't just learn it from him, but from all the nice people at Red Hat and the Fedora community, who teach me new things all the time. They're all different kinds of people -- users, developers, writers, translators, testers, editors, and so many other things I can't even write it all. They're the people who make it possible to build a complete Linux platform from open source software.
But they say we're not done yet, and we can ALWAYS use more friends to help, so if you think this sounds neat, you should definitely visit:
* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/HelpWanted

All right, I have to go now. There's always more things to learn and do and I am a very, extremely busy kid. 'Bye! - - -
Fedora is a set of projects sponsored by Red Hat and guided by the contributors. These projects are developed by a large community of people who strive to provide and maintain the very best in free, open source software and standards. Fedora Core, the central Fedora project, is an operating system and platform, based on Linux, that is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute, now and forever.
Fedora Core 5 is available at absolutely no cost. To download it:

VIA BITTORRENT (RECOMMENDED):
* torrent.fedoraproject.org/bordeaux-binary-i386.torrent
* torrent.fedoraproject.org/bordeaux-binary-x86_64.torrent
* torrent.fedoraproject.org/bordeaux-binary-ppc.torrent
For DVD and other formats, refer to http://torrent.fedoraproject.org/
If you run an earlier version of Fedora Core, you can get BitTorrent from Fedora Extras. If you are using another platform, you can get BitTorrent at:
* http://www.bittorrent.com/

VIA WEB:
Visit the main Fedora download site listed below. You will be automatically redirected to a mirror of Fedora Core 5. There may be delays due to site congestion, especially in the days immediately following the release, so BitTorrent is recommended instead.
* http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/5

VIA CD/DVD:

Visit the following site for a list of vendors of Fedora Core CD/DVD
media:

* http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Distribution/OnlineVendors

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Tags: Fedora Core 5, Linux, Red Hat, Bittorrent
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Written by randy@strategypluscommunications.com on March 24th, 2006 with no comments.
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CompUSA to carry Xandros Linux PCs

CompUSA and Xandros announced a partnership today. Xandros, a provider of easy-to-use Linux alternatives to Windows, announced today that the retail giant, CompUSA, is now selling the Xandros Desktop product in all of its stores, nationwide. The Xandros product line offers home and business users a complete, stable, and secure alternative to costly Windows systems. I've been thinking about trying Xandros myself on my home lab setup.

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Written by tkeating@tmcnet.com on March 14th, 2006 with no comments.
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Digium podcast of Mark Spencer’s new role

Mark Spencer, founder of the Asterisk movement, lead off the conference call by saying, "Today is one of the most exciting days in the history of the company." Them's some mighty big words! Mark explained that this came about while searching for a COO and VP of Business Development and they were then approached with something even more exciting.

Mark explained why Digium hired a new CEO and why Mark changed his role within Digium. Mark, "When you start a company and you're just one person, you have to do everything yourself and that is the history of Asterisk got started really - because I needed my own phone system and they were too expensive to go out and buy one. But as you grow, you have to start delegate stuff out.  The easiest thing to delegate out in the beginning is to delegate stuff you're bad at and don't enjoy doing. Delegating stuff you're good at but don't enjoy doing.  Then there is stuff you enjoy doing but are still bad at doing. Lastly and the most difficult part is delegating away stuff that is very enjoyable to you and that you have a propensity for doing well. Digium has reached a size that that was a decision I had to make." (Note: I'm typing this during the call, so the exact quotes may be a bit off)

Mark added, "While hopefully I've done a (cough - nervousness? I think its modesty since he didn't want to toot his own horn) fairly reasonable job getting the company to this level, I felt that the part that is more interesting to me and that part where I can bring the most value to the community, employees, and the customers, was focusing on the technology and strategic vision of the company in the long run. When I had the opportunity to bring on someone who has an incredible operational background and whom I have a relationship of trust for the past 7 years, it was simply a very easy decision to make and to make this transition happen."

Bill Gates (Windows) role and title famously shifted and now Mark Spencer's (Linux) role has shifted. This  is all part of the 1st law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy) and keeping the universe in balance. That's my theory anyway. Mark Spencer is to Bill Gates was Neuman was to Jerry Seinfeld, what the Red Sox are the Yankees. It all makes perfect sense now. If Mark didn't change titles, the universe would explode.

Mark explained that Danny Windham "has been a board member since 2000 and actually has been with the company longer than any other employee has been. He was able to come on and be the CEO of the company and allow me to be able to focus on the community and the customers and the technology of the company in a much more focused way."

ADTRAN explained that they have a 7 year relationship with Digium, with a significant investment in Digium but a minority investment. Since I want to get this news up and let everyone listen to the conference call themselves, I'm going to post the entire conference call here as a podcast. I may update this post in a bit with some more interesting quotes.

Here's an MP3 podcast of the conference call:
Conference Call with Digium about new CEO

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Tags: ADTRAN, Asterisk, Bill Gates, Digium, IP-PBX, Linux, Mark Spencer, Microsoft, open source, VoIP
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on January 1st, 1970 with no comments.
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