Is FOP2 / Asternic still in business?
Is FOP2 / Asternic still in business? I've filled out the support form, email the info link and tried calling both the US and Argentina phone numbers. I'm not getting anything. I have an issue that is coming up on a week old an I'm very concerned that this software is dead.
The chat is absolutely atrocious and is some A.I. crap so it is NOT true that the live chat has no bots. Telegram as mentioned above appears to just be some announcement thing. You can't talk to anyone there either. Why is it so hard to get support?
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You're not the first. There's another thread here that I've been half-heartedly keeping an eye on. The dev's forum account is @nicolas, and while he's logged in as recently as 22 days ago (April 1), there's nothing in his activity section.
I'd really rather be proven false, but FOP2 seems to be halfway abandoned (at least as far as support). There's still updates to the software, though. The changelog on the downloads page shows consistent updates over the last several months, but it doesn't look like anyone's had luck actually contacting them (or at least hasn't posted about it).
Ok. That's my impression that prompted this post... "halfway abandoned". I see Nicolas' name all the time and yet nothing recent so either something happened or something really happened. Either way, its not a good look and it gives FOSS a bad reputation. There's a way to exit and this isn't it!
I'm going to do a separate post on what my issue actually is just in case someone else here knows what's going on currently I'm not hopefully and I have a client who rely's on this stuff to work. I fear the clock is ticking.
Thank for responding and letting me know I wasn't alone.
Well, FOP2 is neither Free nor OpenSource, so this does not affect FOSS reputation. This is actually good for FOSS, because if FOP2 was FOSS then there would be many contributors to share the load...
I am looking forward to day when I will be able to "git clone" FOP2 and use it on anything newer than Centos or Debian from 5-10 years ago, like current openSUSE, and be able to fix some things that I don't like (and contribute my changes in case anybody else needs them).
Btw, I hope that nothing serious happenened to @nicolas, maybe just got tired and took a deserved vacation
Fair point Siny but my Sangoma (who, as you know own FreePBX) rep was surprised when I told him what was going on because they still recommend people to FOP2. I got some other recommendation to review from him actually.
I get wanting or needing a vacation but I'm a business owner and have written software for clients too. While of course no one wants to think the worse, the bottom line is that you have to have things in place to able to prevent these situations. At the end of the day, people just need to know what is going on so they can make decisions.
Has any one heard from them? I have been trying to reach someone for a few days now we have an astrnic install that suddenly won't display anything just a blue screen when you go to the stats page. It even does it on a fresh install.
David,
Still nothing for me... I even just tried call the US and AR numbers again. The AR number rings for 3 minutes then hangs up. The US number... someone says something that I can't make out but it beeps so for the heck of it I left another message (I'm not expecting a call back at this point).
My Sangoma rep told me I could open a case there since I'm a partner with the hope that someone while be able to help but its a long shot. He also recommended posting on the FreePBX forums too. I haven't done that yet but I will. You might want to try that.
After posting about this over on the FreePBX forums (see https://community.freepbx.org/t/migrating-freepbx-with-fop2-to-new-hardware/96580/6), not only is FOP2 still around but what I have seen and now experienced, support is pretty active via Telegram (and that includes Nicholas).
Apparently all their website information is out of date. To get support you'll have to get on Telegram and go to:
https://t.me/asternic_fop2
There are English speakers there so you can ask questions in English if you need to.
So the answer to my question is a big YES
As much as I love Telegram, that is not replacement for a forum.
I took a look at that group, but it is sooooo unreadable, especially with my knowledge of Spanish (which comes down to 3 phrases that I would not mention here). Everything is mixed up in a single thread, really hard to find anything. Also, you can G-Translate a forum, which is much harder with Telegram.
So the answer to the original question: they might still be in business, but that is not a good way to run a business.
I am in the same situation. I sent several emails and chat messages, but there was no reply. My clients also need FOP2 working, and after the same server FreePBX 16 upgrade, it stopped working and needs an activation. I have followed all the suggestions on the form, but I am not progressing. I hope they reply to my email or messages soon.
If he is exiting the business, it would be nice if he donates all the source files to one of the open-source communities or sells them to another organization at a reasonable cost so they can continue to maintain and enhance it.