[Kamailio-Users] General observations about the OpenSIPS discussion

Tue Aug 5 16:41:27 CEST 2008

Hello,

On 08/05/08 16:20, C. Bergström wrote:
> Please excuse me interrupting this discussion a bit.  If I'm flat wrong, 
> off base or rude I apologize in advance.
>
> 1) I think some technical opinions and observations may have merit and 
> even if they don't are at worst, good best practices.
>     a. Increasing the QA and testing between releases.
>   

I believe there is not enough whatever one will do with testing and QA. 
I have 1.4.0 in production in couple of sites, but only with the modules 
I use/need. Also, the ones following the developer mailing list are 
aware of a test suite created by Henning Westerholt that is designed to 
detect errors and report regression tests. Nothing is done over the 
night, but that test suite is up and running on devel.openser.org, and 
will be enhanced as we go. For the 1.3.x release, if using it in 
production for about 2 millions users is not a good testing and QA, I 
cannot add more:

http://www.ilocus.com/2008/03/the_largest_voip_offering_base.html

> 2) IMHO the name kamailio sucks. (Who cares right?)
>     a. Others have expressed this same opinion and provided at least a 
> logical argument against it.  The point here is maybe if more than one 
> person says it.. Someone should listen?  Maybe there could be a private 
> discussion for a new name?  Sorry to those who put effort into renaming 
> and moving things already, but rather now than later, right?  Seriously, 
> two things here are important.. brand and listening/responding to the 
> /community/
>   

We are listening and trust me it is very hard to find new names. It is 
very laborious process in checking trademarks, possible infringements 
and so on. The old name was attacked because of the "ser" part in it 
(has nothing to do with the old project and companies around it, but 
something totally different). It started the idea of finding something 
different, with no direct relation, as telecom world is one of the 
toughest in this aspects, and words related to protocols and 
combinations are already accounted.

Nobody claimed is the best and if you have new proposals, just write. 
Others are welcome as well. We are a community here, but everybody must 
understand that first we needed to protect from current issues, to be in 
a safe place. These are rather delicate things and avoiding court trials 
is advisable. If there is a new proposal, supported by community at 
large, I am sure there are solutions. I really appreciated that 
community members sent us some proposals for logo -- I am going to 
upload on the site.

> 3) Everything else at this point really comes down to communication and 
> egos.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have no idea why there's a division between the developers now, but 
> whatever good/bad/no communication happened in the past I hope it can be 
> resolved.
>
> Main points if not obvious..
>
> 1) Only one rename of OpenSER is going to thrive and gain support. (If I 
> had to guess)
>
> 2) In the entire history of open source.. Who has *ever* heard of a core 
> committer doing something malicious!?!  This isn't some draconian 
> corporate environment where your access is cut off before you get your 
> pink slip.  Anyway, it's under revision control and backed up.  Not that 
> this is any of my business, but I hope it's been corrected already.
>   
Nobody was removed from mailing lists, from board of openser or from 
developer team. Everybody has commit rights as he/she had before 
(commit, delete, add, whatever operation in the svn).

There were some changes for root passwords in the servers and removal of 
administrator privileges. This decision might not be the best one, but 
considering that openser project was ignored by some developers for 
about 2 months and the work was done in secrecy to another project could 
be appreciated as a precaution, plus that the developer stated yesterday 
that his interest is no longer with this project.

When I started openser I had in mind that developers come, developers 
go, forks may happen. Even the attack for trademark came as a result of 
project success. All is at the end just showing the maturity. I have 
been writing documentation, from the core cookbook to developer guide to 
make things easier for newcomers and help developers.

Now, from my point of view, I will continue to work on openser/kamailio 
project and ensure the good quality and community collaboration around. 
I wish good luck to any new fork starting from kamailio, that shows we 
are a good and reliable point to start.

What I didn't like in this approach was that openser project was left 
alone for quite some time while the work (the bugs fixing for the code 
maintained by the developers doing the fork) was done in secrecy to 
another project. Would have been fair to announce the retirement once 
the decision for the new project was taken, so we (the other openser 
developer) can take over that code and fix the problems in time for 
release. If you look at the tracker and know the code partitioning 
between developers you will get the picture. Yes, you can blame me, I 
was part in a fork as well, but I didn't leave bugs open in my part of 
the upcoming stable release at that time.

The other developers are taking care now and we will have a stable 
release on the 7th of August.

All I wish is the developers that trust the openser/kamailio project are 
let to continue their work and everybody focuses to do the best where 
they consider to do it. We can make endless declaration s about the 
future, time will show the results if we work to implement something now.

With kind regards,
Daniel Mierla

> The bottom line.. I don't know who is more right or wrong in all this 
> and don't care.. If possibly.. can both sides propose some middle ground 
> (ASAP) so everything minus the name can go back to the way it was before...
>
> Most Humbly,
>
> ./Christopher
>
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>   

-- 
Daniel-Constantin Mierla
http://www.asipto.com