Hiding the Documentation

I'm not sure about you, but when I'm presented with the challenge of researching any type of software or system, the first resource I go to is the vendor documentation. Sometimes, this happens even before I look at any white papers or brochures that go with the product.

IP-PBXs are interesting beings. They're usually modular, have different software and hardware components, as well as pages and pages of PDFs to go along with each "part." I can sift through the various pieces and kludge it all together, but what I don't understand is why there are still a significant number of vendors who make this documentation proprietary , almost confidential.

There are a few good exceptions to this - Avaya particularly comes to mind. For every product, they have easy-to-access documentation that is available to the masses, without a support contract or even a serial number. Frankly, I wish that all companies could provide this level of honesty about their docs. It makes the product evaluation procedure much easier, and lets you know the in's and out's of a particular product before even having access to it in a lab.

I'm much more likely to recommend a product when I can see the full documentation set beforehand. What do you think? Should all vendors provide full documentation sets for their products, especially convergence and IP-PBX focused systems? Or are they simply trying to hide what really goes on "behind the curtain?"