Windows Client Software: The hard truth.

Jeremiah Flerchinger jeremiah.flerchinger at gmail.com
Fri Jul 13 07:44:18 CEST 2007


SyncML is a very good solution for the most part.  Apple should support 
SyncML out of the box with iSync.  We'll have to develop a *.plist xml 
document to handle specifics of the transfer, and maybe a bash script 
for installation, but that should be it.

Dealing with windows will be a bit more of a pain.  I'm pretty sure no 
implementation of Outlook or Outlook  Express  support  SyncML out of 
the box.   They  do  have  (limited)  support for vCard and iCal formats 
for individual file importing/exporting.  Windows users could always 
install Thunderbird and SyncML extensions, although I think Mozilla 
Calendar has the same issues as outlook regarding calendar syncs.  Maybe 
if the new iTunes can sync phones other than the iPhone...

I think funambol 
(http://www.funambol.com/opensource/project/subsystems.html) has open 
source clients & plugins that could be used to help people running 
Windows.  My suggestion is for those people to buy a Mac ;-) .


Derick Jones wrote:
>
> I have no idea how to program and I just "got" into linux because I 
> like the whole idea, but as windows user for most of my life im so 
> used to point and click and it happens. Honestly if you want to target 
> this to average people that's how it has to be. I mean I installed 
> ubuntu and it toke me like 3-4 hours of research just to get my 
> gigabit Ethernet to work because it was incompatible with the install. 
> The average person isn't going to have that kind of time to figure out 
> how to sync there neo to their Windows PC. I love this whole idea of 
> freedom and im sure most people do. But if they don't get how it works 
> how will they use it? Honestly im devoting a lot of my time into 
> reading about linux and openmoko simply because I want to learn how to 
> be free and most people don't know how to even install something in 
> linux. So unless there's some kind of installer that does everything 
> for them its going to be a big obstacle to over come. Im just an 
> average user and I love this because your letting me say what I think 
> even though you have know Idea who I am and I thank you for that freedom!
>
>  
>
> Derick Jones
>
>  
>
> Cant wait to get my Neo so that I may be very frustrated, but gain so 
> much knowledge!
>
>  
>
> *From:* Jeff Andros [mailto:jeff at bigredtj.com]
> *Sent:* Thursday, July 12, 2007 4:54 PM
> *To:* Mark
> *Cc:* openmoko-devel at lists.openmoko.org
> *Subject:* Re: Windows Client Software: The hard truth.
>
>  
>
> It's not anywhere near that hard.  since we've got a syncML client on 
> the phone (or at least we will... that's definately a block issue) all 
> we need is a syncml program for the desktop side.  tossing 'windows 
> syncml -"windows mobile"' into google gives back results in job-lot 
> quantities... that's about as far as I got... I'm not really feeling 
> like evaluating them.
>
> That said, we probably want to have either an official branded desktop 
> solution (the more crossplatform the better) or at least a recommended 
> software choice.  I'm sure there is a open source sync program we 
> could talk to about some kind of partnership.  Not having an official 
> "this will work with your computer" program would probably be a pretty 
> bad blow to getting this out to Sean's dad(makes people nervous).  
> While most open source programs have really great extension 
> mechanisms, there are a lot of people who don't want to take the time 
> to set any of that up (how many people do you know who run firefox 
> stone stock?).  It would be cool to have a list of desktop software 
> options up on the wiki, but we definitely
>
> Anyways, I'm really talking out my ear, since I haven't looked at any 
> of the included apps yet either(are there any yet?... are we just 
> using the desktop program of your choice?).
> --Jeff
>
> On 7/12/07, *Mark* <markitect at gmail.com <mailto:markitect at gmail.com>> 
> wrote:
>
> I have to agree; when the phone hits mass availability, the average
> user (assuming mass adoption) will be in windows.  That would
> effectively make it just another phone to them.  I guess I just
> assumed the linux apps were being written to be easily portable when
> the time comes.
>
> I haven't looked at the Linux host apps at all , but as long as they
> are gtk based it might not be too painful.  We might also bundle it
> with the required cygwin dlls, but personally I hate that solution.
> There may also need to be some driver work, does anyone know if it
> will show up as a mass storage device to windows?
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Jeff
> O|||||||O
>
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