Re: Does Symbian OS Work?

["David A. Desrosiers" <hacker gnu-designs com>]

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> Ok, what if I have the sharp zaurus? Does it synchronize with Linux.

	I don't believe it does. I find this rather funny, actually. There
are something like 20 Linux-based PDAs on the market today, and not a SINGLE
ONE is sold with the ability to sync with Linux, but almost all of them sync
with Windows (iPAQ, Helio, Zaurus, Psion, Agenda, etc.).

	I've been talking about this problem for almost four years. The
reason there's no way to sync with Linux yet is that there's no single
heterogenous data storage mechanism to sync to. Everyone uses their own.
J-Pilot uses one, PalmOS uses another, Evolution/GNOME uses another, K-Pilot
uses another, and so on.

	And even if there were one format for data storage, which
applications would you sync to? Mail (pine/mutt/elm, mbox/maildir/imap/pop)?
Contacts (Netscape, LDAP, gnomecard, SMAPI, Evolution)? Calendar (ical,
vCal, Evolution, etc.)?

	I can see why vendors just throw up their hands and say "Screw it,
we'll support Windows and let everyone else support their own stuff".

	This problem must be fixed, ASAP, using industry standard
technologies (CSV, XML, vCal/vCard, etc.) and not be dictated by proprietary
or questionably licensed technologies (SyncML).

	jpr (of Ximian), Judd (of J-Pilot), and myself (of pilot-link) are
working closely together and probably will end up soon agreeing-upon, and
converging on a single data format for storage, or at least a common format
to use for data interchange.

	That being said, updating the pilot-link/gnome-pilot/etc. tools to
work with Linux-based PDAs may not be immediately easy, since each PDA
again, uses it's own applications and data storage (QT, Familiar, Intimate,
etc).

	The other piece of the puzzle is the next generation of PDAs, such
as those coming out with Symbian OS on them. What do we do there? There's no
documentation on their storage (I assume they use something like SyncML so
they can interoperate with the newer cellphone data storage formats).

	The end result is that we're heading there, but we're not there yet.

> I'm sorry if you find this a strange question. But thank you very much for
> your help.

	No problem. This is just one person's opinion, but I've owned every
single PDA I could get my hands on over the past decade, and I've been using
them since well before the Newton (GRiD, Apple, US Robotics, Sony, TRG,
Handspring, Samsung, Symbol, Kyocera, etc.), and I've seen some things
maturing in the right direction (external storage, always-on networking) and
seen other things converging in the wrong direction (cell + pda + keyboard).

	Take it with a grain of salt for now.



d.

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