Blatant eggism pure and simple.
#hatersgonnahate

Speaking of fish (i.e. "Les Poisson" Anyone who knows me well will recall hearing me say this, and I will repeat it again here in reference to this article, "It’s not the Chefs that made French cooking great." To anyone who hasn’t dined in a French restaurant, their is a consistent exchange between the Chefs and their patrons, and as is often depicted in films, it sometimes gets testy.

Anyone worth their salt in the design process of anything needs to understand and appreciate constructive criticism, and use it in a methodology of constant improvement. Otherwise, dog food remains, well…dog food.

Digium: Thanks for creating a rock solid (at least in my application of it) Telephony program. It really came in handy where I worked. I integrated it with an existing Merlin Legend PBX and used to route international calls to China. Asterisk saved the company a lot of money!

Nerd Vittles: Without you and FreePBX I probably would have given up on Asterisk. While Asterisk has been rock solid in usage, getting it setup and working was extremely difficult. That is partly the nature of a phone system, but it is not helped by the Asterisk cryptic command syntax. Nerd Vittles to the rescue: you have packaged Asterisk, added features to it and promoted it like no other!

The dove with the olive branch at the end of the article was a nice touch too.

Finally, I’d like to comment on the footnotes for this article. I used FoxPro and Clipper in their hay day and still have a client using a FoxPro application I maintain. I vaguely remember something about WAMPUM too. Thanks Ward for your contribution to the dBase era of database software. I hope Asterisk won’t meet the same fate as dBase.

Unfortunately, building new systems to replace older hardware has me thinking that Digium may not be as committed to this tool as I am. My consideration of purchasing hardware from Digium has definitely been impacted, and my thoughts have turned to how the job can be done potentially without Asterisk. It makes me sad. Maybe enough contemplation will help resolve this situation.

Over the years, I have crawled many blogs and forums related to Asterisk. Long ago, when Asterisk@Home first appeared, I thought I was in heaven because I never could configure bare Asterisk.

Then came along Nerd Vittles. What can I say – you are the best, the most helpful, and the most responsive. Above all, you anticipate what problems your readers may encounter – especially the newbies.

I have agreed with you on Digium’s developmental and testing issues you brought to light. Having been involved with software most of my professional life, I couldn’t agree more with Ian’s comment: "It is a *damning* indictment that Digium does not have enough faith in Asterisk to use it as their own system." To me, that’s the first rule of development.

I remember when I first got involved with VoIP. I knew I had to "cut the cord" if really wanted to learn. So, when I first subscribed to a VoIP service from Vonage, I literally cut the incoming telephone wires from Verizon. Same with Asterisk, no commercial PBX.

Finally, as a marketer, I concur with the need to use hyperbole – or controversy – to make a point, to instigate a debate.

I thank you – and Digium – for what you have given to the world!

Maybe the analogy Rod was searching for involved something to do with a well recognised chef trying experimental methods of cooking fish with toxic ingredients and trying them out first on other people?