[GNU/FSF Press] Free Software Foundation Announces Milestone 6 of GNU Bayonne

[Bradley M. Kuhn]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Free Software Foundation
               Bradley M. Kuhn <address@hidden>
               Phone: +1-617-542-5942

Free Software Foundation Announces Milestone 6 of GNU Bayonne

Boston, Massachusetts, USA - May 2, 2001 - The Free Software Foundation
announced today the sixth milestone release of Bayonne, a key part of the
effort to provide and promote free software solutions for the
telecommunications industry.  Bayonne is a telephony application server,
and is released under the GNU General Public License.  Bayonne provides
the ability to perform enterprise telephony functions such as unified
messaging, and is capable of scaling to support enhanced carrier services.
Bayonne can be integrated with scripting languages and tools commonly
found on free software systems such as GNU/Linux.  Bayonne is the first
major package of GNUCOMM, the GNU Telephony project, and integrates
GNUCOMM with the GNU Enterprise project.

David Sugar, the maintainer of GNU Bayonne, said: "In distributing the
sixth milestone release of Bayonne, we have chosen to focus on extending
Bayonne to provide a free software platform for creating and deploying
next generation XML integrated voice applications.  Traditionally such
systems have primarily been available only as limited proprietary
software."

This initial release of Milestone 6 includes the first functional snapshot
of Bayonne XML services, including a plugin which introduces an XML
dialect, BayonneXML.  BayonneXML will extend the existing CallXML dialect
and will provide support for additional features and functionality
specific to Bayonne.  Through plugins, Bayonne will support a wide body of
XML languages, including those that fully conform to existing XML language
specifications.  Additional plugins will provide voice browsing of other
XML-based data via Bayonne.

Milestone 6 represents the last major release before the development of
RTP trunking features for GNU Bayonne, and the subsequent final release of
Bayonne 1.0.  Volunteer developers who are interested in helping develop
GNU Bayonne are encouraged to contact the Free Software Foundation.  The
website for Bayonne is located at http://www.gnu.org/software/bayonne/.


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/.


About GNU/Linux:

GNU/Linux is the combination of the GNU system and the kernel named Linux,
modified to work together smoothly.  Although there is no way of actually
counting them, this combination has millions of users, probably over
twenty million.

The GNU/Linux combination is often confusingly called "Linux", which leads
people to an inaccurate picture of the history and nature of the system.
Distinguishing between GNU/Linux, the complete system, and Linux, the
kernel, helps correct the confusion.

More on this issue is available at
http://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html.