User guide

• Many of the projects and tools have changed name during the last years and it is difficult to
understand what exactly each of the tools is providing, how and to whom.
• There is not a holistic view of how to deploy IP Telephony (specially in developing regions)
including the network provisioning, energy requirements, training and business models.
12.3 The jargon
Let us start by describing a few terms that are commonly used in Asterisk-based software distributions.
12.3.1 LiveCD
It is the generic term to refer to an application that can be executed without installation on a hard drive
(HD). A LiveCD is an application that boots from your CD and you can play around with. It serves as a
controlled "demo" environment.
12.3.2 GUI
It is a graphical (user) interface that allows a more friendly interaction with a computer or an application.
Using a GUI, you will not have to edit configuration files directly.
12.3.3 Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a software implementation of a computer that is capable of executing programs
like a real machine. One of the post popular uses of virtualization is the possibility of running a “guest
operative system” inside of an already installed operative system. Virtualization is a broad term that
refers to many other areas but from the point of view of this document, you can think as the possibility
to run some flavor of Linux with Asterisk inside of your Windows machine.
12.3.4 ISO
It is a single file that contains all the information stored in a bootable CD-ROM. The ISO file can be
burned into a physical CD or loaded (booted) in a virtual machine.
12.4 The GUI-friendly projects
There are two major group of solutions available
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, those which aim to provide a simple front-end to
Asterisk configuration files including the basic services and those that aim to develop an integrated
framework to build and manage more complex added value solutions.
To make things easier we have classified some of those projects in three major groups based on the
GUI they include: The first group includes all the projects that are based on FreePBX, the second
group includes all the projects that rely on the AsteriskGUI and the third group consists on a cluster of
initiatives that have implemented their own GUI.
43. List of existing initiatives http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+GUI
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