Digium and Fonality are two of the best-known channel brands in the IP PBX software market. But they rarely see eye to eye — especially when it comes to claims about giving back to the open source Asterisk community. In his personal blog, Fonality CEO Chris Lyman (pictured) offers his stance on giving back to Asterisk. The VAR Guy enjoys vendor showdowns. And this certainly qualifies.
You’ll find Lyman’s complete blog entry here along with early reader reactions. In the blog entry, Lyman tries to destroy the claim that Fonality doesn’t give back to Asterisk. His position can be summarized in the following two paragraphs:
“The point of my letter was: Fonality does “give back”. Fonality has always “given back”. Fonality just does not “give back” to Digium — the for-profit venture-backed company and competitor to many who use the Open Source Asterisk code.
Why? Well, Digium uses their Open Source community as a wedge toward their own commercial pursuits. In short, you have to sign their commercial license in order to have your changes included in the GPL branch which they control. Look, there is nothing wrong with this – its a slick for-profit move designed to improve their competitive position. I simply cringe at the FUD created around us not “giving back”.
Lyman previous addressed the Asterisk debate during a podcast with TheVARguy.com. Now, The VAR Guy has reached out to Digium for comment about Lyman’s blog entry. Stay tuned.
Keeping Score
Regardless of the Asterisk debate, both Digium and Fonality have been signing up IP PBX partners rapidly in recent months, so this cat fight could escallate for years.
Digium was ranked No. 4 and Fonality No. 16 in The VAR Guy’s recent Open Source 50 report, which tracks the open source industry’s most promising partner programs.
Sure, Digium has mind share among Asterisk enthusiasts. But Fonality has lined up relationships with Dell and Tech Data. Impressive moves, to be sure. And Lyman certainly isn’t shy about sharing his opinions with partners.
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I personally have reservations about Fonality, but its good to see competition. And its even better to see Open Source solutions thriving through these two companies.