Asterisk is well-known, but the open-source IP PBX FreeSwitch is winning favor in some circles, says ZDNet's Dave Greenfield.
FreeSwitch gets kudos for cleaner code and better implementation of some types of features. Expected to be released this week, Version 1.0.1 improves the code stability and adds both automatic speech recognition and text to speech to the code.
Open source developers and enterprise users are finding love with FreeSwitch. SIPfoundry is using FreeSwitch as the basis for a new open source conferencing server. Implementation of call monitoring and busy lamp field (BLF), voice mail, and call parking reportedly are all much better in FreeSwitch. The platform supports writing IVRs in Lua, Javascript, Python, Perl and a built-in XML.
A bigger challenge for all open source projects will be the ability to integrate PBX functionality with business applications through web services.
For more:
- ZDNet's FreeSwitch vs.
Asterisk [1] blog
Related articles:
Asterisk--Threatening
or Boring [2]?
Digium's 4
Million (Ports) Served [3]
Links:
[1] http://blogs.zdnet.com/Greenfield/?p=233
[2] http://www.fierceenterprisecommunications.com/story/asterisk--threatening-or-boring/2008-04-14
[3] http://www.fierceenterprisecommunications.com/story/digium-s-4-million-ports-served/2008-06-24