PRIVACY PETITION

I agree with this.

I tend to agree that this should also be removed. I have actually gone back to the TB1.2.3 UI with kennonsoft's wonderful dynamic UI. I am quite happy to loose the functionality of the package manager. I have installed minimal KDE with the yum manager and it provides the same functionality. When I need the package manager (which is never btw) I simply startx at the CLI run the manager and when done exit xwindows. CHecked the load and speed when Xwindows is running on a fast box with lots of ram and noticed no problems. My TDM400 worded just fine with 4 simultaneous phone calls on the zap lines and 1 VOIP call thru stanaphone and KDE running.

After I have gotten the bugs worked out I will post a script to convert automatically to the old tb 1.2.3 UI along with the kennonsoft dynamic UI 2.1.

BTW all of the choices in the TB 1.2.3 UI on TB 2.0 work with the exception of MUNIN which I am in the process of writing a script for which should fix that also. You also see that it is TB 2.0 running in on the left hand side of the screen.

A2Billing is still broken in TB 2.0 but I think I have found a way to make it work with another script although that is still alpha 8^) I dont use A2billing so I just disable it on the kennonsoft UI and all is well.

I do appreciate all the work that went into the http UI however a lot of us want different choices and I already have my users trained on the old UI therefor less learning curve for them.

No flames please, I will not respond

Tom

Trixbox is all about choice. You have to choice to change the GUI if you want (it’s all open source) you have the choice to not register your system with our server. Just don’t login to the package manager. Your system will run fine forever even if you never connect to the internet. Unlike programs such as Microsoft Windows Vista that cost $300 and stop running if you don’t register with their site.

I find it interesting that people don’t mind running a business buy selling trixbox for thousands of dollars or saving their companies thousands of dollars by installing trixbox. But they do not even donate $10 to the project.

How many people supporting this partition have ever donated to the project? The anonymous stats we gather from this connection are used to get advertizing dollars for our project. This is how we pay for the bandwidth and servers that serve the project.

The trixbox community is a democracy. I asked what people thought about anonymous usage stats before we implemented it. Most people thought it was a good idea if it helped the project.

So let’s continue the vote. But let’s change it a little should we remove the anonymous stats if it means that we delay development of the trixbox project? This means Asterisk 1.4 and many of the other new features that people have been begging for.

Andrew,

First let me thank you for all the effort you are putting. A@H is what hooked me on to asterisk.
There are couple of points you raised which I would like to ponder on..

1) people run windows, pay money and, register but for trixbox they have issues

well, people do not have choice in case of windows. also using doesn't mean liking.. i am sure very very few people like registering however they simply don't have choice.. if trixbox tries to become windows, people will simply move away from it .. here they have choice..

2) people are not donating to project

i thought trixbox was a 'community project' (vs. commerical project).. means donating is not enforced. some people donate some do not.. if you have issues with people not donating money, probably you should start charging for trixbox.. i have no problems with that.. btw since fonality took over, i think is much less need of donation now that it has commercial backing.. from what you are saying, trixbox is trying to become a 'adware' where it gets money from advertizing.. again I have not problems with that, just say it so..
that raises one more question too.. since trixbox is collection of other freeware utlities, I am not sure how much fonality is donating to developers of those utlities

Please do not take these comments perosnally, I am just trying to have an open disucssion..

btw.. anonymous stats are not problem.. problem is mandatory registration.. why is username a requirment for 'anonymous stats' ? linux (I run fedora) doesn't require me to register to get update..

The trixbox project currently employs two full time engineers, a fulltime product manager, a part time graphic artist, and has a number of contract workers on different projects. This makles trixbox a huge cost center. Just because Fonality is spoonsoring the project does not mean they shouldn't find some way to offset those costs. Donations and advertising are certainly ways to accomplish that. We are not going to beat a dead horse about the package manager login, this was discussed months ago with a very favorable response from the community. If we feel that the community did not respond appropriately originally then we will, of course, revisit this issue for the next major release.

As for "other ways to donate", I totally agree. This includes helping in the forum, adding bugs to the bug tracker, adding information to the wiki (coming soon) and sending me very cool hardware :-) .

As always, we appreciate your comments and we do listen to what people have to say. For right now, we can make any major changes to the platform. However, when we ask for suggestions for the next release, please don't hesitate to bring this up again.

People get up in arms about privacy all the time. Its like the new cool thing to complain about. In reality we have more privacy now that we have ever had.

I for one do not see a problem with fonality gathering usage data. They need some level of recovery for sponsoring the project.

thats just my 2 cents worth

Thanks

Rager :-)

The problem is not that we are loosing privacy, its the fact that now everyone is becoming more interconnected and so with you end up divuldging more information just due to the nature of it. There are more laws protecting your privacy now than has ever been before.

However if you live in the USA I'd say this may not be true, but in NZ it is.

My intention was not to start a flame war but rather just to say I don't really see any problems with it.

I agree...a unique numeric id would be more agreeable.

I was kind of shocked to see I was required to give up my TB.org login to use part of the app. The lack of anonymity, the possiblity of being locked in to a pay for application, and ridiculous licensing fees for even simple things were the major factors to why I've moved away from commercial products like MS or SonicWall.

I used to have nothing but bad to say about opensource I was a pure MS guy. Now I avoid MS like the plague and ANY opportunity to use opensource to avoid MS or commercial products like Sonicwall will be utilized. It's not just about the money it's about someone having control over my projects.

The login thing gave me the uneasy feeling that Fonality might in some distant future lock parts of the app out unless you pay them for a license. It’s not unheard of; I’ve been lured into such things many times with commercial software. While I have no problem with paying for things I do have the concern I will implement this project and get to where I have no choice but to comply with whatever license they might demand because I have so much time, effort and resources invested in it.

Please do not take this as a flame on TrixBox, or Fonailty for that matter, but Fonailty is a commercial entity and their mission is to make money like any other business.

If it's a problem with contributions and you have no choice but to collect names then I would request that you first make a plea to the community with the caveat that if you fail to raise $X you will have no choice but to proceed with other means to keep the project alive.

Before you say it, you’re right I have the option to move on….but its opensource and what makes opensource great is community input.
Just my .02…..

Btw, need resources? I’ll be happy to donate bandwidth and server space or even a decent server. I have 10 megs up/down.