Any working SIP-phone on FreeBSD?

[Polytropon]

On Sun, 19 Jun 2011 12:34:51 -0400, Jerry wrote:
> Would you care to elaborate on that statement? Is your prejudice based
> on the fact that there is nothing in the open-source community that can
> even begin to match the robustness and ease of use of MS Office, [...]

Are you refering to the surprising fact of incobpatibilites
between different versions, and betweeen same versions of
different architectures (32/64 bit)? :-)

As it has been mentioned, "next year" problems has never been
a field where users could rely on MICROS~1 products. It's
traditionally been the users of open source programs that had
to do the "magic" to import + export defective "Office" files.
And outside MICROS~1 land, their "Office" files are not very
much appreciated.



> Unlike your appraisal of the situation, I find that users use office
> suites, in this case MS Office because it offers the end user what they
> want.

I've already heared so many users complaining about the "Ribbon"
UI and seen them transitioning their infrastructures to more
"old-fashioned" interfaces like of OpenOffice. Users had a hard
time learning menues (although they would never admit), and now
something different? Something that requires you learning and
recognizing pictures instead of words? Pictures that dynamically
change location and size? Depending on window size and what the
cursor is currently pointing on?

"No Sir, I don't like it." is a common statement.



> Specifically, an all-in-one application that integrates
> seamlessly into their home or work environment without the need of
> additional software.

The egg-laying wool-milk sow, a one size fits all program, has
proven in history that it's nothing more than a big pile of
problems that claims to be able to do everything, but in the
end, fails at simple things. Modularity is the key. Open
standards are the future. History teaches exactly that. The
fact that home consumers and corporate "big-thinkers" don't
want to realize this doesn't make any difference. In the end,
they will all pay, on one or another kind.



> Microsoft's decision to offer MS Office in several flavors was a wise
> investment. The MS Office Home and Student 2010 can be purchased for
> $79 from many distributors. I know over a dozen users who have
> installed this very suite on their home PCs simple because the
> price+value exceeds anything available anywhere else.

You can legally download and install OpenOffice for $0.00 and
even exchange files with older versions of that program, even
with StarOffice. Can you do that with "MS Office"? Surely not.

And your files are in a documented and standardized XML format.
This means they can be opened in the future, unlike the strange
and secret memory-dump formats (that sounds SO wrong) that
older "Office" programs did use.

Open software usually is of high value that is in NO relation
to its price (for the end user, which is zero), simply because
it has to be on par with the "big ones", and in many cases, it
is _better_ than the "big ones", because its developers don't
think in quarterly terms and in how much units they will sell.
They don't have to. They have a better motivation.


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...