asterisk users - Sep 2007 - Which Asterisk version to use?

Hi,

I'm a complete newbie to Asterisk and have been reading through 
documentation and sites for the last couple of hours trying to understand 
what to do to start my learning curve with Asterisk, and am very confused.

For starters, what is the difference btwn the 1.2 and 1.4 branches of 
Asterisk?  I can't seem to find a document that describes the changes.

Secondly, what is the best way to start off with Asterisk?  Should I install 
a Linux distro from scratch and then install Asterisk on top of that, start 
with AsteriskNOW and go from there, or start with Tribox?  What advantage do 
I get installing Linux/Asterisk vs. installing AsteriskNow or Tribox and 
starting my learning curve from there?  It would seem as the most reasonable 
to start with a prepackaged "appliance" installation - no?

Can someone please explain the difference between AsteriskNow and Tribox? 
They seem to be filling the same need - a one-step easy installation of 
Asterisk on a brand new PC.  Am I missing something?  Both have GUIs, but 
TriBox seems to be more complete with more features.  Is this not correct?

Thanks so much for any information to help set me on the right path.  As you 
can see, I am extermely confused and lost in the maze of Asterisk docs and 
struggling to find a little headway here.

Eric

On Thu, 2007-09-27 at 11:48 -0400, Eric B. wrote:
> I'm a complete newbie to Asterisk and have been reading through 
> documentation and sites for the last couple of hours trying to
> understand what to do to start my learning curve with Asterisk, and am
> very confused.
The best starting point IMHO is simply to buy the new O'Reilly Book
"Asterisk - The Future of Telephony" and follow the instructions there
to install and configure Asterisk 1.4 on top of your favourite Linux
Distro.

Bob

> I'm a complete newbie to Asterisk and have been reading through
> documentation and sites for the last couple of hours trying to
understand
> what to do to start my learning curve with Asterisk, and am very
confused.

It's a big world, so take a deep breath and don't worry about being
overwhelmed at first.
> 
> For starters, what is the difference btwn the 1.2 and 1.4 branches of
> Asterisk?  I can't seem to find a document that describes the changes.
> 
> Secondly, what is the best way to start off with Asterisk?  Should I
> install
> a Linux distro from scratch and then install Asterisk on top of that,
> start
> with AsteriskNOW and go from there, or start with Tribox?  What
advantage
> do
> I get installing Linux/Asterisk vs. installing AsteriskNow or Tribox
and
> starting my learning curve from there?  It would seem as the most
> reasonable
> to start with a prepackaged "appliance" installation - no?
One advantage to using the prepackage method is that you get straight
into what Asterisk can do while skipping most of the how-do-I-set-it-up
drama.  I personally like the Trixbox distro for getting a quick setup
into operation.  It is relatively easy to get started with and let's you
play with the system.  Once you get your feet wet then it's a good
exercise to learn the steps of doing a manual install.

> 
> Can someone please explain the difference between AsteriskNow and
Tribox?
> They seem to be filling the same need - a one-step easy installation
of
> Asterisk on a brand new PC.  Am I missing something?  Both have GUIs,
but
> TriBox seems to be more complete with more features.  Is this not
correct?
> 
Trixbox is, essentially, Asterisk + Asterisk 3rd party add-ons + decent
preconfiguration.  I'm not sure about AsteriskNOW.  Just remember that
Asterisk has an ecosystem, so there are lots of different things you can
plug into it and lots of different apps that can interface with it.
Just take it slow and steady and you'll do very well.

> Thanks so much for any information to help set me on the right path.
As
> you
> can see, I am extermely confused and lost in the maze of Asterisk docs
and
> struggling to find a little headway here.
> 
Someone already mentioned it, but get the O'Reilly book - "Asterisk -
The Future Of Telephony."  (Abbreviated TFOT in many places.)  Be sure
to get the 2nd edition if you're going to buy it off the shelf.  It
should be out any time if it isn't already available.

-MC

Eric B. wrote:

 site and got to chapter 4 or 5 and decided to take a break.  Which is when I
 found AsteriskNow and TriBox and then started wondering if it was really
 necessary / worthwhile to figure out all the intricacies of the application
 if someones have already created the appliance version of it.  In which
 case, I was very confused as to the difference btwn AsteriskNow and TriBox.

 Thanks!
  

   Last week I posed a similar question to the list as a "noob". 
   Specifically, I was curious why every one was so adverse to GUI
   implementations.   Like you, I entered the asterisk world quite idealistic
   and oblivious to what is actually required to create a functional system
   (still am).  I spent the good part of last week trying to make heads or
   tails of the AsteriskNOW distro, but finally gave up in favor of a plain
   jane Debian install with asterisk and wish I would have never wasted so
   much time trying to figure out how the users.conf  worked.

   <quote>
   [TK]D-Fender - The users.conf is a flaming piece of sh**!
   <\quote>

   I actually thought that was a bit harsh when I read it...turns out to be
   quite accurate.  Long story short, I'm learning to be quite comfortable
in
   the CLI and finding myself more productive in nano (yes..nano) than I was
   in the GUI.

   Good luck!

   -jc
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Use whatever stable version your distro, in your case Debian" provides, it
is your best options; especially when starting.
As to GUI - it is not a good option, you will not learn much, in addition if
your GUI will not work and you need to fix something
you are stuck.
Go the way everybody does, use command line and your editor; it is not that
hard; there are only few files you have to edit.
It is your best chance to learn something.

#Joseph

On 09/27/07 13:01, Jim Canfield wrote:
>    Eric B. wrote:
> 
>  site and got to chapter 4 or 5 and decided to take a break.  Which is when
I
>  found AsteriskNow and TriBox and then started wondering if it was really
>  necessary / worthwhile to figure out all the intricacies of the
application
>  if someones have already created the appliance version of it.  In which
>  case, I was very confused as to the difference btwn AsteriskNow and
TriBox.
> 
>  Thanks!
[snip]

On 27/09/2007, Eric B. <ebenze at hotmail.com>
wrote:
>
> For starters, what is the difference btwn the 1.2 and 1.4 branches of
> Asterisk?  I can't seem to find a document that describes the changes.
>
Anyone?
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