For the last few months, we've been working on an updated version of AsteriskNOW. What's changed in AsteriskNOW 1.5? Everything!

We switched the core Linux distribution to CentOS from rPath (which uses yum rather than conary).
We switched the default GUI to FreePBX from AsteriskGUI (though it is still available if you'd like to continue using it).
We also switched to DAHDI from Zaptel.

When will it be available for public beta? Immediately!

For more information, please see http://blogs.digium.com/2008/10/13/asterisknow-15-beta-available-more-coming-soon/ - if you want to jump right to the download page, go to http://www.asterisknow.org/downloads/

Edit: The default username/password for FreePBX are freepbx/fpbx. I'll make a quick-start guide in the near future.