Free Software Foundation Announces 7th Major Release of GNU Bayonne

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Free Software Foundation
Bradley M. Kuhn <pr@gnu.org>
Phone: +1-617-542-5942

Boston, MA, USA - Friday, October 12, 2001 - Today Dave Sugar, a GNU package maintainer, announced the 7th major release of GNU Bayonne for developing free software based telephony application services today.

This new version provides improved support for building digital telephony services and applications under free software by adding support for CAPI based BRI cards. An important contributor in this effort has been Kai Germaschewski, who is better known for his work related to ISDN4Linux and CAPI4Linux.

GNU Bayonne also supports Voicetronix hardware, which offers low cost multi-post analog DSP telephony cards. Voicetronix was the first telephony card vendor to release their drivers and api under the GPL, supporting the GNU Bayonne project from the start.

We also continue to support the Quicknet telephony cards and the Linux kernel standard "/dev/phone" interface, as well as analog and some digital telephony cards from Intel. Work on various other telephony cards and support for next generation IP based telephony networks are also in progress.

Using a commodity PC platform running GNU/Linux and multi-line telephony hardware available from numerous vendors, GNU Bayonne has already been used to create and deploy commercial voice applications that interface with the public telephone network. Such applications can include basic services like Voice Mail, as well as web integrated voice commerce (v-commerce) and customer relations management. GNU Bayonne offers scalability to support deployment of carrier grade enhanced services under free operating systems.

GNU Bayonne and all related non-hardware specific software needed for building and running it may be found at the GNU ftp site (http://www.gnu.org/gnu). Individual drivers and telephony hardware related libraries are provided directly from the respective vendors. All information about GNU Bayonne may be found at http://www.gnu.org/software/bayonne.

GNU Bayonne is a standard package in the GNU project and is also part of the broader GNU and free Telephony effort that is directed under GNUCOMM (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnucomm/). GNU Bayonne is also used as a part of GNU Enterprise (http://www.gnue.org). In addition to supporting GNU/Linux, we are looking to make GNU Bayonne available under FreeBSD and GNU/HURD.

About the Free Software Foundation:

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software—particularly the GNU operating system (used widely today in its GNU/Linux variant)—and free documentation. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. Their web site, located at http://www.gnu.org, is an important source of information about GNU/Linux. They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA

About GNUCOMM, the GNU Telephony Project:

GNUCOMM, a subsystem of GNU, provides free software solutions to common telecommunications problems. GNUCOMM will free users of voicemail, PBX, and call-center applications from reliance on the proprietary software that currently dominates such telephony equipment. The system aims to be scalable and configurable enough to allow end-users to develop their own telecommunications systems with little or no special knowledge of GNUCOMM's internals. GNUCOMM will support both VoIP and PSTN interfaces, as well as interfaces to existing phone systems. GNUCOMM will scale from individual user installations to carrier-class sites. The website of GNUCOMM is located at http://www.gnu.org/software/gnucomm/gnucomm.html.

About GNU Enterprise:

GNUe aims to provide a suite of tools and applications for solving the specific needs of the enterprise. GNUe will handle the needs of any size business, including applications for human resources, accounting, customer relationship management, project management, supply chain and e-commerce. GNUe is a free software project developed by volunteer software developers worldwide. The website of GNU Enterprise is http://www.gnu.org/projects/gnue/.