"The v3 ISO is almost here..." and then the schedule slips again. If you've been around software long enough you know that release dates always slip. Luckily, unlike some of the big software giants out there, we try not to slip our schedules by years :-) We also have an excuse, it's Open Source, which makes it a bit harder to control the resources when almost all of them are community members donating their time to the project while often trying to run their own businesses as well!

Hi folks,
I haven't posted a blog entry on here previously, so let's start with an introduction. My name is Darren Schreiber and I'm the creator of the FreePBX v3 software. I wanted to take a chance to update everyone on the state of affairs regarding v3, as there have been some developments, questions and posts that make it clear it's time for a v3-specific update.

The great thing about FreePBX is not just the software but the great community that comes with it. There have recently been some posts thanking "me" and the FreePBX development team for this great product. The thanks are very much appreciated and when I hear some of the real world stories that constantly surface I am always humbled as to what all of you end up doing with FreePBX.

I sat around this Saturday morning clearing out some recent bugs so I could head off to Maui tomorrow with a clear conscious and enjoy my vacation. As I did so I pondered what to blog about having just given you a well received sneak preview of the next v2 release. One of today's bugs made me think it would be good to talk about the hard choices of what goes in a release and what does not. Before I go on though, if any of you readers are out in Maui in the next 1.5 weeks, send me a PM, maybe we can have a drink!

Work on FreePBX 2.8 is progressing at break neck speeds (has it been just a week since my last blog?) and I couldn't hold back giving you a sneak preview! Although 3.0 takes the cake in visual improvements and web 2.0 features, 2.8 is taking steps to improve on a few areas that long time FreePBX users can really appreciate. Where as we set out to work on internal plumbing along with a few features, we naturally find areas to digress, to your benefit.

Are you keeping an eye on the ticket trackers (v2 and v3), blogs or the website in general because there is a lot happening and it's a really exciting time for FreePBX! On the v2 front we pushed 2.7 out the door a couple of weeks ago with several exciting enhancements and over 4000 systems already upgraded!

I'm excited to announce FreePBX 2.7 Final available for immediate download. We have over 2000 systems running 2.7 at the time of this posting and continue to see more features and increased stability as FreePBX evolves. The bugs encountered during this release were minimal and most of those addressed in the bug tracker were already existing bugs from earlier releases fixed during this Milestone (and most of those not back ported to 2.6.

Progress on both the 2.7.0beta1 and v3 General Preview release candidate have been going great with lots of activity. The 2.7 beta will be moved into release candidate state this week along with an upgrade module provided to upgrade from 2.6 systems for those who prefer to use the GUI and stay clear of tarballs and SSH.

Just a quick note to all of you who may be trying to access the v3 SVN repository either directly or through the trac browser. The SVN repository is currently down and not accessible. We are aware of the problem and it is being addressed. This is related to some of the maintenance issues we have had that are being investigated.

Thanks for your patience while we address this and we expect it to be back up later today.