Fourwaves
Fourwaves follows its participant inbox with a week of admin fixes and security hardening.
Comparison · Meetings
Asterisk vs HOMER
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Asterisk and HOMER — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Asterisk vs HOMER: at a glance
What is Asterisk?
The three-branch cycle closes: 20, 22 and 23 all promote to final with the same 28-issue set.
The release round that opened on August 7 has finished. Asterisk 20.21.0, 22.11.0 and 23.5.0 all tagged within a minute of each other, each carrying 39 commits from 16 authors, 28 resolved issues and zero security advisories. The counts are identical across all three branches, which is the same backport-in-lockstep pattern the certified track and the June security round both followed.
What is HOMER?
HOMER 11.0.369 fixes S3 auth on Ceph-based storage and stops compaction memory growth.
HOMER's 11.0 line is still hardening its DuckDB tiered-storage layer. 11.0.368 retries incomplete tier moves and fixes tiered queries that missed lake tables. The 11.0.369 pre-release stops sending the AWS session token with static S3 keys, which broke Vultr/Ceph RGW, and keeps DuckDB's file cache off on write paths so compaction memory plateaus. Security fixes (bound tiered lookup parameters, hono bump) ride alongside.
Asterisk vs HOMER: editorial side-by-side
Asterisk
5.0MEETINGS
The three-branch cycle closes: 20, 22 and 23 all promote to final with the same 28-issue set.
◆ Current state
The release round that opened on August 7 has finished. Asterisk 20.21.0, 22.11.0 and 23.5.0 all tagged within a minute of each other, each carrying 39 commits from 16 authors, 28 resolved issues and zero security advisories. The counts are identical across all three branches, which is the same backport-in-lockstep pattern the certified track and the June security round both followed.
◆ Where it's heading
Nothing about the shape has changed: three mainline branches plus a certified track, one fix set, promoted together. The rc1-to-rc2-to-final progression narrowed from 27 issues to a single websocket segfault fix and then closed, which is a cycle converging on schedule. Release bodies still publish counts and links rather than user-facing notes, so the feed measures release discipline rather than product direction.
◆ Prediction
Expect the certified track to pick up this same fix set in its next cert release, following the lag it showed after the June round. The next mainline round should open with rc1 tags on all three branches again.
HOMER
5.0MEETINGS
HOMER 11.0.369 fixes S3 auth on Ceph-based storage and stops compaction memory growth.
◆ Current state
HOMER's 11.0 line is still hardening its DuckDB tiered-storage layer. 11.0.368 retries incomplete tier moves and fixes tiered queries that missed lake tables. The 11.0.369 pre-release stops sending the AWS session token with static S3 keys, which broke Vultr/Ceph RGW, and keeps DuckDB's file cache off on write paths so compaction memory plateaus. Security fixes (bound tiered lookup parameters, hono bump) ride alongside.
◆ Where it's heading
Almost every release since early October fixes the parquet lake: compaction, cache behaviour, tiering and S3 compatibility. The storage rewrite is being shaken out in production on more varied object stores. Feature work, such as OTLP log events on the call ladder, has paused while this stabilises.
◆ Prediction
Expect 11.0.369 to be promoted from pre-release, followed by more storage fixes for non-AWS object stores before feature work picks up again.
Alternatives to Asterisk and HOMER
Other Meetings products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Asterisk or HOMER.
Element Call
Element Call starts moving to new LiveKit transports and falls back to remote SFUs when needed.
JW Player
JW Player moves CMAF VOD into the dashboard, adds AV1, and opens Broadcast Live to audio-only feeds.
rtpengine
rtpengine opens the mr26.3 branch with a rollback message and leaner call state.
Nextcloud Talk Desktop
Nextcloud Talk Desktop 2.3.3 adds accessibility options and bundles Talk v25.0.6.
Nextcloud Talk
Nextcloud Talk patches v22 and v23 while v25 stable sits five weeks past its last RC.
See all Asterisk alternatives → · See all HOMER alternatives →
Recent activity from Asterisk and HOMER
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 23h agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.371: B2BUA legs in exports, Smart Search fix
- 3d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.369 fixes Ceph S3 auth and compaction memory growth
- 5d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.368 fixes tier moves and tiered-query table coverage
- 7d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.367 disables DuckDB file cache for local lakes
- 8d agoHOMERHOMER 11.0.366 bumps DuckDB to 1.5.6, pins Go build
- 14d agoHOMERBlocks DuckDB file reads and rejects placeholder JWT secrets
- 2mo agoAsterisk22.11.0 promotes to final with 28 issues resolved
- 2mo agoAsterisk23.5.0 closes the cycle on the newest mainline branch
- 2mo agoAsterisk20.21.0 carries the same fix set back to the LTS line
- 2mo agoAsterisk23.5.0-rc2: single fix for a websocket PONG segfault
- 2mo agoAsterisk20.21.0-rc2 takes the same one-commit websocket fix
- 2mo agoAsterisk22.11.0-rc2 mirrors the websocket PONG crash fix
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Asterisk and HOMER?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Asterisk and HOMER are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Asterisk better than HOMER?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Asterisk and HOMER are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 5.0 vs 5.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Meetings products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Asterisk?
Top Asterisk alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Asterisk alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/asterisk for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to HOMER?
Top HOMER alternatives in Meetings are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "HOMER alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/homer-voip for the full list with editorial commentary on each.