Developer comments
The current status of mobile devices synchronization in Linux is generally is quite shaky. It *can* work but it's a lot of work usually. There are a few efforts around but there's no single project that works in the majority of the situations.
This is also caused by manufacturers not using a single synchronization protocol. The most promising project now is OpenSync[1] which supports basically SyncML 1.1 and the Nokia variation and it works with several degrees of success between phones and desktops but the project itself is in a constant alpha state with a lot of issues, the GUI is simplistic and there are no integrated resources to sync with online contacts/calendars
like Google's. This can be overcome by preparing Evolution and/or Thunderbird to do it.
In short, despite the infrastructure is mostly there, we need work to make it a seamless experience for the user.
Bear in mind that this is a huge effort. Synchronization looks simple but there's a lot of factors and situations that need to be addressed like how to synchronize devices with different capabilities and how to keep 3 way synchronizations (desktop, online and mobile).
Propose your solution
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conduit is a really great tool for syncronisation. but it's going to be a part of gnome, so i think that you are going to use/benefit from it anyway...
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jherran
wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 16:04
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Counduit use "OpenSync plugins (anything they support) (SVN)", same as multisync, and as i told before, it only works for few devices.
I think that any user, must can sync at least contacts and calendar without issues on most devices.
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lolo
wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 17:14
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I think this is a very big reason why Linux isn't popular among business people. A lot of them use PDAs or other mobile stuff and using something like this without being able to sync is just stupid. I tried several times to sync my palmtop to KDE, but finally gave up. Maybe I'll try again...
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FastZ
wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 18:43
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+1
Has there been any effort to get with the OEM for these devices (BlackBerry, Palm, etc) to see if they might consider creating an open-source version of their syncing software? Blackberry has their proprietary syncing software which I believe can run on Mac as well as Windows of course, so why not make an open version, with all the same features and functions, for Linux?
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goober99
wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 19:12
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Ubuntu should at least give some indication when a mobile device is connected. Right now there is no indication whatsoever when I plug my PDA into Ubuntu. If additional software is needed, the indication could give suggestions where to find it and/or learn more about it.
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nimrod
wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 19:32
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Thats a good chance to replace this stupid and oldfashion System --> Preferences --> PalmOS Devices entry.
Instead of this there should be something like "Mobile Devices" or something similar.
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gduteil
wrote on the 28 Feb 08 at 20:20
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+1
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As long as we're wishing for things, how about a little help for the opensync team making new plugins? It's a nice framework, but it would be nicer if I could sync my GPE palmtop to the contacts in Thunderbird rather than Evolution.
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pili
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 00:27
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Absolutly agree with all of you.
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maltes
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 00:32
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This is not an Ubuntu issue.
The Opensync project was created to solve this. The only thing Ubuntu could do would be to direct additional resources to the Opensync project.
http://opensync.org/
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I think it would be helpful if Ubuntu ran a SyncML server. They have the resources to handle the traffic and storage.
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hackel
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 03:54
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Ubuntu, being a big player in the operating system market, could contact manufacturers like Nokia, which already benefits hugely from open-source technology (Linux, Webkit), and ask them for a OpenSync plugin, or to assign some open source developers to help with it...
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i would love to have something for mobile devices. It is so complicated to get modern e and n series nokia's to easily sync with ubuntu. this would make it a lot cooler for companies needing pda/phone sync.
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hasi
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 06:53
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I am using FinchSync.com, which syncs Calendar with Sunbird (or any *.ics file) and Addresses with Thunderbird Addressbook. Works OK.
I also found info about FunAmbol, but haven't tested it.
--hasi
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spawn57
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 07:04
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as maltes said, opensync was designed to solve this
please allocate additional resources to opensync
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salutis
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 08:37
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Currently I am using syncevolution utility. Still bit buggy, but in fact works. There is also a frontend in development, called Genesis.
More info at Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/genesis-sync/
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rocsak
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 08:40
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It's a nightmare without end to try to sync your windows mobile device with ubuntu. I had to configure sync-serial, thunderbird-lighting, scheduleworld, funambol client on my wmd, and routing so my wmd could connect to internet when I attach it to my pc (to update from scheduleworld). And even that is working with problems.
As for the evolution-multisync experience, I would really hope to find a way to wipe it from my memory.
This was the only thing that brought me really close to switching back to windows.
So, please vote for this.
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zigzed
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 08:56
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Yes, I switch to windows just because of sync my PDA.
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kunick
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 10:06
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Looks to me like this is in big need of some love. I maintain a master copy of all my contacts in Evolution. Every time I change phone, it really is a black art as to how I get my contacts transfered. This has been the way since I started using Ubuntu Hoary.
My syncing process involves highlighting contact additions on phone by pre-pending aa to contact name. Manually adding contact to Evolution + adding any additional information I have. Exporting contact as vCard. Deleting phone contact and bluetooth beaming contact to phone. From experience, I have no confidence with phone Evolution syncing.
For research purposes!, I tried this on a Mac a while back. When the Mac detected my phone, It did the syncing automatically! No questions asked.
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plerk
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 11:00
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My guess is, that the "missing sync" hinders many people to finally migrate to Ubuntu (or Linux in general). Getting to work your shiny new mobile often is a tale of pain and despair with a not so happy ending in many cases.
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pj
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 13:04
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+1 vote
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igor4u
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 14:20
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+1 vote
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muecker
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 18:21
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When looking for a way to sync my new Nokia 6555, I discovered many different sync tools, each of which worked for a few phone models, but nothing that was a catch-all. I finally found one that works with a lot of the functionality of my phone, but it took a lot of trial-and-error.
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I agree with this idea completely. I used Ubuntu at work for everything for a couple of months. I had Evolution tied to Exchange and everything. The only reason I had to go back to Windows is because I bought a Pocket PC (HP iPaq 9700-something) and I couldn't get anything to work with it.
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cr4a
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 18:45
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Yes please. I have a Nokia 5300 that I can sync with Windows but not Ubuntu.
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miketech
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 19:40
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Very very important!! Syncing my Nokia E65 never worked painless.
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tavis
wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 21:12
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It's not just a problem with Ubuntu, and the solution is more work on opensync, BUT it's a major problem and that means that any desktop-oriented distribution should consider fixing it a priority.
For me, syncing is the only reason why I occasionally boot into Windows. The fact of the matter is that Opensync development is not moving that quickly, probably because the developers lack resources. My Pocket PC phone frankly worked better with Multisync three years ago (but didn't really sync very well back then either).
As applications continue to move into phones, UMPCs, etc., sync is only going to become more important.
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Newer Nokia phones will work with SyncML. Tricky to set up but works. (At least the calendar does. I'm personally more interested of synchronizing the contacts.)
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abinoam
wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 00:27
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Some people switch to Ubuntu, but they still have a "virtual" Windows XP under VirtualBox runing MSOutlook just for syncing their PDAs.
It would really be great to see "syncing" working fine in GNU/Linux (it's not an Ubuntu particular issue).
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As someone already said above, this is the KILLER APP for business people. You can't tell them ubuntu is great and then expect them to fiddle around on the command line.
For Windows Mobile 5 and usb:
The instructions at:
http://www.synce.org/moin/SynceWithUbuntu
still don't work.
I've been following the issue for over 6 months and it's a people problem that needs someone with a bit of influence to sort things out. The story everyone has been told: "Not my problem, it's blocked because of someone else." So drivers are still not yet in the kernel, let alone in ubuntu.
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yes it would be nice to be able to sync my WM6 pocketpc as easily as in windows
in windows, all i have to do is install activesync (for WinXP anyways...) and microsoft outlook.... and BAM! it all works.
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I think Opensync is great. It just needs to be improved, and better desktop integration.
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Needs to work out of the box! My current workaround is to export data from MS Outlook on my works Windows laptop (that syncs fine with my PDA) and then import the data in to Ubuntu apps.
Mobile computing (Smartphones, PDAs, etc) is becoming more and more popular - Ubuntu cannot afford to be left behind.
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feNNec
wrote on the 1 Mar 08 at 12:14
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It's really a shame for all of us to keep Windows installed somewhere for mobile/PDA/PPC synchronizing purpose. It's not really an Ubuntu issue, it's a Linux critical pb. Ubuntu has a friendly desktop oriented dist may show the way.
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I'd also be glad to be allowed to sync most of my devices (iPod's contacts and agenda, WM5 smartphone, a Mac laptop...). I'm looking for a server side syncing solution too.
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Syncronization have been a major issue for me ever since I started to use Ubuntu with the release 5.4. Coudos to the people that actually involve in this but frankly speaking I see room for improvements on all levels. Most important: Improve the stability of open sync plugins. In my I need Synce and it is mostly a lottery if it connects from one time to another. Second: Multisync have branched into Opensync but Ubuntu stays with the aged 0.92 version of Multisync. This makes me as a user uncertain about what to do, in particular when the version included with Ubuntu does not quite do the job. Third, fix the packaging in Ubuntu. I would expect that I user should need to install 2 packages at most in Ubuntu; one for synchronization as a feature and a second for their particular device. Fourth: Desktop integration and integration into the virtual file system.
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pasita
wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 13:09
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Please take care of this idea, i consider it really interesting.
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I am aware that the members of the OpenSync project are working REALLY hard to offer plugins for everybody. So it is not an Ubuntu's issue. Instead, perhaps Ubuntu could help to have a really good graphical tool like MultiSync was.
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It took me more than a month to sync my IPAQ 6515 with ubuntu. Well, how can I convince one of my friends to use Ubuntu. You need to say something that makes it easy. Only eyecandy is not enough. People needs simple things. Even a 65 year old person should be able to use his/her phone to connect to the internet or sync with the pc. What ever the OS evolves to, it has to be easy.
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spr0k3t
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 03:01
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I've had so much of a problem trying to figure out how to sync my ipaq that I finally installed Familiar Linux with the GPE interface. Now I'm fighting my ipaq with Linux on how to get it connected so I can sync that together.
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dekale
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 09:10
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I agree with the idea this is very important. I know several people who want to use Linux/Ubuntu but depend for their business on syncing with their pda and exchange server. Evolution does that job resonable, not good. Syncing would help a lot for many people to make a dissiscion in advance of Linux.
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+1. This idea is very important.
To me contacts is very very important. I think pimlico-project is very interesting http://www.pimlico-project.org/
If we have this and sync to mobile phones, internet tablets and MIDs will be very interesting.
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The only reason I use Windows is to sync my palm and mobile phones with one another and with syncworld/google calendar. I tried may times to sync my palm with kpilot and only ended up having multiple/duplicate entries in my palm calender thus ruining my calendar. I have now given up. I believe syncing mobile devices must be given top priority
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Defkon1
wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 23:11
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MUST-HAVE functionality... connectivity and interoperability between devices are the real challenge in home/business/enterprise software markets...
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Why would you want plug in your device to your desktop or laptop and sync PIM data to your client system? Am I missing something?
Devices already sync all their data to servers, and thus client desktops can do the same thing. Check out the Funambol project which uses syncML and has very high device compatibility, even when compared to commercial providers. And its all open source.
It sounds to me like you people are suggesting we go back to 1995 and sync our PDA using a serial cable (or now, bluetooth). That is all fine and dandy, if all your doing is 1 user, 1 desktop, and 1 device. Then you have 20 manufacturers each using a different proprietary and undocumented protocol, even changing protocol between model#s. But if that is how the world worked, we probably would still not be using cellphones or iphones yet.
This is 2008, time to get with the program. If you are unhappy with network sync, then we need to improve upon it. But individual device sync to the desktop? They all have different proprietary protocols, what a waste of time IMO.
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Handspring Treo 300 doesn't work at all in ubuntu no matter how hard I try. Even attempted to get it to work via infrared, but the IRCOMM dongle won't work for crap either.
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zoro
wrote on the 11 Mar 08 at 12:33
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I'd like to voice my support for this suggestion. Syncing mobile devices easily and quickly is an important step in getting a foothold into the corporate environment.
Daniel
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Suggestion: Focus on iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile. Maybe also support cheaper Nokia and Sony Ericsson Phones. But I think Palm for example will not be used much in the future.
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tavis
wrote on the 18 Mar 08 at 18:18
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Apparently, the new version of Mandriva has WM5/6 syncing working out-of-the-box with Evolution and I think also Kitchen-Sync; it mainly entailed a bunch of tweaks to Opensync and a few other packages.
Ubuntu should copy these tweaks; you can read about them at:
http://osnews.com/comments/19481
In the mean time, I will probably switch to Mandriva, and wait for Ubuntu to fix this problem.....
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actaris
wrote on the 26 Mar 08 at 13:43
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I'll try mandriva in virtualbox, and if sincronization with my HP 6915 works will be a great improvement
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+1 for making my Palm LifeDrive sing with Ubuntu.
Even better would be the ability to install Ubuntu on my Palm LifeDrive, and then have my minibuntu sing with my laptopbuntu
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wladston
wrote on the 16 May 08 at 16:37
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had already given +1, now +STAR.
PLEASE, DO THIS ONE!!!
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SyncEvolution could also use some help in development to reach the 2.0 release which is a plugin for Evolution. Today it works great but it's all command line...
http://www.estamos.de/projects/SyncML/
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avb
wrote on the 29 May 08 at 16:19
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This is a VERY MUCH needed feature. Actually, Symbian phones are just unusable without this. I wonder: MSN protocol was reverse engineered, MS Office formats also... it's time for Nokia PC Suite...
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avb
wrote on the 29 May 08 at 16:39
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Another thing about SyncML: I think what Nokia does, is that it sets up an (offline) SyncML-server on your computer, thus simulating the internet-based sync.
(So we don't need to "Set up an official Ubuntu SyncML server for Ubuntu users" , but rather do it locally.)
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wibble
wrote on the 25 Jun 08 at 09:41
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Sorry for this but:
Does "we need work to make it a seamless experience for the user" mean that Canonical is contributing to this work and puts some of the "huge effort" in it?
IMHO 3-way synchronization is of lower priority. The problem of syncing a mobile device (at least one of the most popular ones) to some available PIM applications should be first addressed.
I only have _very_ little experience with OSX but the "missing sync" app seems to do the trick there. Why isn't it possible to do the same for Ubuntu and Linux in general? Do you have to pay money to get the phone/API/protocol/whatever specs or is it "simply" a lack of manpower?
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+1 (more if I could)
Also (I've not read all of the comments, but), an easy way to synchronize my /home partition with a NAS drive would be fantastic. Everything I've tried so far doesn't seem to want to let my synchronize easily with my NAS.
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Cube
wrote on the 9 Jul 08 at 16:13
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That is my NUMBER ONE missing in Ubuntu. Nevertheless I heard you can go around this by syncing Ubuntu and your phone with a remote server, but that's not as easy as on Windows, isn't it?
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avb
wrote on the 14 Jul 08 at 19:39
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I just found out that you can sync your device via bluetooth. Unfortunately you need to involve the internet. I'm talking about scheduleworld.com, and their Firefox extension. Haven't tried it yet, so be careful and backup your data first.
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avb
wrote on the 17 Jul 08 at 09:02
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Update: forget about scheduleworld. It's REALLY hard to configure it, plus you have to manually edit text files. No graphical frontend. So medieval.
And the best part: you can't log in to scheduleworld.com, simply because the link is missing! It has a "sign up now", but no "log in"!
I think I'm giving up my syncing hopes with Ubuntu. Let's face it: Opensync will never be ready.
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@avb:
I use OpenSync to synchronize my BlackBerry with both KDE-PIM and Google Calendar.
It works great!
(My only issue is lack of support for Contact categories in the current version (0.22). And even that should (hopefully) make it into perhaps the 0.4 branch.)
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Endolith
wrote on the 31 Aug 08 at 18:03
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There is no reason we should have to add third-party repositories to get this stuff to work. Please include all the necessary packages and devote some time to making things work well together
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Get Funambol, SyncEvolution and Genesis into the repositories, yes yes! I support that.
+1
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wolfie2x
wrote on the 16 Nov 08 at 15:07
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+1 (+10000..)
after weeks of searching/testing/installing/scripting I managed to sync my Windows Mobile with evolution. That was a nightmare.
Now I got a iPhone, and have to go through hell again to sync it. There are a zillion pieces of the puzzle to put together before it'll work; Funambol, SheduleWorld, Genesis, SyncML, syncevolution..
The infrastructure is there; The programs are there; And these actually do work; It's only a matter of bundling the pieces together (out of the box) so that it "just works".
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Presently, I find it a bit depressing how much effort it takes to sync the very popular GPE Palmtalp Environment with GNOME (and thus Ubuntu); the only working sync solution we have is gnome-pilot, which seems to work beautifully.
Considering that GPE is free software, wouldn't it at least be in our best interests to support that on some level (preferably on the same level we support the far less free Palm PDAs), even if it isn't super pretty?
I can't help but think it would be fairly straight forward to get a gnome-pilot for GPE going, since there are many existing sync plugins scattered here and there to prove that it's possible.
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A lot of the "duplicates" of this bug are not really duplicates.
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Let's gp back to *nix/linux first principals: small programs that do one thing well.
Since each PDA uses its own transfer protocol, each PDA needs its own small program that reads/writes that protocol on one side and then reads/writes some standard thing on the other side.
It seems that we already have some standard things for contact information -- vcards or similar.
It seems that we already have some standard things for
calendar information -- iCal or similar.
Next the several desktop applications need to read and write these standard things.
Next we need some way to accomplish all of this from a script.
ACPI will already launch a script when your usb device (PDA, phone, player, etc) connects.
This is lots of small programs, each doing one thing well.
~~~ 8d;-D
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Post your comment
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Blueprint pda-support-out-of-the-box:
Ubuntuforums.org thread #727373
