System information

We have chosen to install on CentOS and Ubuntu because they are the most popular
options, but Asterisk is generally distribution-agnostic. Asterisk will even install on
Solaris, BSD, or OS X
†
if you like. We won’t be covering them in this book, though, as
Asterisk is most heavily developed on the Linux platform.
Asterisk Packages
There are also packages that exist for Asterisk that can be installed using popular
package-management programs such as yum or apt-get. You are welcome to experiment
with them. Prebuilt packages may not always be kept up-to-date, though, so for the
latest version we always recommend installing from source.
You can find package instructions at http://www.asterisk.org/downloads/yum.
Some commands you see in this chapter will be split into separate rows, each labeled
for the distribution on which the command should be performed. Commands for which
distributions are not specified are for common commands that can be run on both
distributions.
Asterisk-Based Projects
Many projects have been created that use Asterisk as their underlying platform. Some
of these, such as Trixbox, have become so popular that many people mistake them for
the Asterisk product itself. These projects generally will take the base Asterisk product
and add a web-based administration interface, a complex database, and a rigid set of
constraints on how changes can be made to the configuration.
We have chosen not to cover these projects in this book, for several reasons:
1. This book tries, as much as possible, to focus on Asterisk and only Asterisk.
2. Books have already been written about some of these Asterisk-based projects.
3. We believe that if you learn Asterisk in the way that we will teach you, the knowl-
edge will serve you well, regardless of whether you eventually choose to use one
of these prepackaged versions of Asterisk.
4. For us, the power of Asterisk is that it does not attempt to solve your problems for
you. These projects are an excellent example of what can be built with Asterisk.
They are truly amazing. However, if you are looking to build your own Asterisk
application (which is really what Asterisk is all about), these projects will impose
limitations on you, because they are focused on simplifying the process of building
a business PBX, not on making it easier to access the full potential of the Asterisk
platform.
† Leif calls this “Oh-Eh-Sex,” but Jim thinks it should be pronounced “OS Ten.” We wasted several precious
minutes arguing about this.
30 | Chapter 3: Installing Asterisk