FreeSWITCH aquired by Barracuda Networks – Rumor

While it is no surprise to some of us that FreeSWITCH finally found the right business partner to associate themselves with, it is interesting to note that even the most devote anti-corporate open source project leaders (Phillipe – FreePBX, Anthony – FreeSWITCH) have both recently been acquired by large companies. In both cases, these open source advocates are now employees of their respective owners.

Let’s face it, people have bills to pay and projects the size of FreePBX and FreeSWITCH require dedicated, full-time engineers on them to meet the demands of their user base. Having a pure community development team when the reality is that very little code is actually generated by the users of the product makes it very hard for projects like these to continue to move forward at a rate that their users want, and even demand.

What makes these stories interesting to those who are following them is the weird amount of secrecy and out and out misinformation that the project leaders spread right up until the moment something is announced. For both project leaders who are so quick to point out when other projects and companies are not being open and transparent to both be secretive, deceptive, and misleading is the thing you need to wonder about. For more information about the FreeSWITCH issue, please read Tony Lewis’ blog at http://schmoozecom.blogspot.com.

I congratulate Anthony and Brian on cutting a deal with Barracuda that will hopefully be in the best interests of the FreeSWITCH project as well as the FreeSWITCH team. I feel that FreeSWITCH has a lot of potential down the road and for it to be funded properly so that the team can focus on it’s development is a good thing.

Update: As it turns out, Tony Lewis’ blog post was based on inaccurate data and speculation. To get to the bottom of the story we contacted the creator of FreeSWITCH personally and have documented that in the article Interview with Anthony Minessale.