Open Source-Friendly Smartphones For the Small Office? 222
Thunderstruck writes "I work in a small office with just two computers. Both machines run long-term-service releases of Ubuntu, with Gnome, and Evolution for scheduling, contact management and electronic mail. We plan to stick with Linux long-term. For telephone service, we're using smartphones. In order to keep everything straight, we need phones that can synchronize easily with the calendars and contact data on each owner's desktop machine. We cannot use cloud based services for this function due to ethics rules, and for security reasons. Right now, we do all of this with older Palm phones, but these are a dying breed. What options are out there right now for phones that will sync with Evolution (or another good Linux PIM suite) which do not require data to go through the cloud first?"
Yer boned... (Score:3, Insightful)
The short answer is "there ain't none". You may be able to hack together an in house solution with some N900 devices, but they will probably be discontinued next year. After that who knows. As for the rest, all require using proprietary sync tools (ala iTunes) or syncing to remote servers (Driod, PalmPre, Blackberry).
Re:Yer boned... (Score:5, Informative)
While it's true that Nokia isn't providing much support for the N900, it shouldn't require much "hacking" to get a working sync solution because it's already been done [maemo.org]. The Maemo community has really impressed me with their ability to provide functionality well beyond what's available on a stock N900.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I don't mean to be rude, but this was in fact, Nokia's strategy. The N900 can sync with evolution because all the good software for it is open-source.
In the new release of the firmware, even the stock N900 comes with the maemo.org production repository already activated - so, even the stock N900 has a whole bunch of working applications - open source.
The strategy with Meego is that even when the N900 is defunct the reason will be something better is there to fill its place, even if it isn't made by Nokia
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Use QT to develop for the Maemo/Meego platform. Its as open source friendly as you could possibly get.
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yep, that's what's made me very sceptical about the whole maemo platform. There was a hacker edition for n770 but it was essentially abandonware after the release of the n800.
What needed an overhaul was the build infrastructure, ala regular distros. Meego devices ought to be powerful enough to self host too as in the bsd 'make world' scenario via a mounted filesystem or cross compiled from a networked machine.
Things may have changed with the meego alliance. I hope i'll be presently surprised...
Don't think phones, think software (Score:5, Informative)
Consider, though, the following.
Android, in its current state, can talk to an Exchange server. If you have an option that will do this (Evo server, maybe?), use it.
Blackberry and Windows Mobile are both syncable on Linux in general. Do searches in the Ubuntu package manager.
Nokia Symbian, I believe, will function similarly.
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Don't forget about WebOS... The source is so open, you can even change the built-in apps (even directly on the device via a terminal session). The "jailbreak" process to allow unsigned apps is to type "upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart" on the phone (which even Palm will tell you). They have even provided an RSS feed for the official App Catalog to be used by any third-party application managers to use (such as Preware)
Even Android looks closed-source in comparison.
WebOS 2.0 is scheduled to be releas
Re:Don't think phones, think software (Score:4, Informative)
Why do people insist on ignoring Maemo on the N900?
And yet openmoko is mentioned... Yes it is an open device but it's also a pile of (&*$.
(I owned one, it's how I know)
SyncEvolution? (Score:3, Informative)
Windows Mobile. (Score:4, Interesting)
I sync Evolution with a Samsung Epix running Windows Mobile 6.5. Works fine, at least with the USB cable - I haven't tried Bluetooth.
I'm running Debian Squeeze.
--saint
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
As strange as it sounds, sometimes even Microsoft software does what it's supposed to do.
Windows Phone 7 (Score:2)
They'll fix that with the next update.
Actually, you're right. It's called Windows Phone 7, and it's not looking too Linux friendly.
They did need to improve the Windows Mobile UI quite a bit, but I think they're throwing the baby out with the bath water...
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Nokia N900 (Score:5, Interesting)
It's basically a Debian box with phone functionality.
Add blue tooth keyboard & mouse, plug the video out into a decent monitor and I'm not even sure you need a desktop or laptop.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
I believe the N900 is soon to be discontinued. Maemo is depreciated in favour of Meego. AFAIK Meego will not be officially supported on the N900. Finally the N900 has been plagued with USB failures. There are claims that a design flaw makes the USB port weak and prone to falling off.
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=37107 [maemo.org]
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>> I believe the N900 is soon to be discontinued.
So, does that mean the phone will stop working? WTF?? And you will be able to boot into Meego with your N900 in future anyway.
The USB port problem was fixed long back. If you have taken pain to search forum threads, then you should also check the timestamp (that thread is almost a year old) if they fixed a year old problem already or not.
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http://www.mysimplemobile.com/index.aspx [mysimplemobile.com]
It's a T-Mobile MVNO
Cheers!
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You can assume they will, but there will also be a semi-official Meego build for the N900, the next firmware update is actually adding official dual-boot support to make running Meego easier.
Not that "official" support from Nokia counts for shit anyways, the community support is much more helpful.
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody would have imagined this to be possible in the year 2000. We've made progress.
Nokia E Series (Score:2)
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What software do you use to sync? I've also got an E63 and I'm thinking of getting an E72/E73 but I want something that will sync with Evolution.
Zimbra Collaboration Suite (Score:4, Informative)
I recommend using Zimbra. It's free, is an excellent mail server similar in functionality to Exchange, and will easily install on either Debian 5.0 or any version of Ubuntu. You can use any mail client, and they even have their own client, as well as a feature-rich ajax-based web client. I sync it to my Android phone via MAPI, and it works very seamlessly.
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zimbra & droid? (Score:3, Informative)
I've never used it, but if you set up a zimbra server, then you can use the connectors available for the 'droids. That should give you the services you need on a box that you control.
- doug
Nokia n900 with Maemo? (Score:5, Insightful)
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why not use Maemo for the phones
Because it's nicer to see and hold a phone before buying a dozen of them. Or because T-Mobile might have 0 bars at the office.
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And you missed the part where N900 can boot into Meego?
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And you missed the part where you have to rewrite all your UI code to go from Maemo (GTK+Hildon) to Meego (Qt)?
Why? Maemo support Qt fine.
Get a server (Score:2)
Get a small (hosted or not) server to sync your desktop and all kinds of other mobile devices against. There are free and open source packages for Calendaring, E-mail (obviously) and Contacts either separately or together. If you already have a server, which you most likely do have, it will be able to handle this little bit of extra web service. This way you'll also be better protected in case a client computer decides to crash.
Otherwise, Ubuntu One and other service can get you these services for a small p
Re: (Score:2)
I've been looking for something like this for a while, especially as my device herd has grown. What software would you use on the server side? I've looked into several (SOGo, eGroupware, DAVIcal, etc) but they all break in some form or other. The closest I've ever gotten is a mostly-sync (Contacts and Notes) with with eGroupware but it throws a very opaque error when I try to sync my calendar items (gets about 20 of 401 then throws an "invalid server address" error).
Ethics? (Score:2)
Re:Ethics? (Score:5, Informative)
If you have employee information in your phone contacts, you are bound (in the UK) by the Data Protection Act to protect that data. If it's being sent to some cloudy server that might be hosted in a foreign country, then you are breaking the law.
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What you described related to the UK's DPA makes it a legal issue, not an ethical one... Laws don't make something unethical. Legislators often make laws surrounding ethical issues, but they were ethical issues before the laws ever appeared.
Well, I don't know where the sumbitter lives and works, so it may well be only an ethical issue, with no legal concerns.
Mobile E-Mail (Score:4, Informative)
Most of the mobile world I know of is slowly moving away from direct synchronisation with the desktop. Instead, the desktop and the mobile device sync with the mail/groupware server.
I suggest taking a look at Zimbra as it supports most devices out there. You can go at it both ways too, with either a server sync or a desktop sync.
We are using Exchange right now with the Evolution MAPI conduit. We are moving away from this solution in favor of Zimbra which will work across desktop and mobile platforms.
Look for Exchange Alternatives (Score:2)
Some Exchange alternatives may work with ActiveSync. This opens up your options to Palm Pre, Android, and iPhone. They may also work with Blackberry Enterprise Server. (Novell may have a solution that runs on Linux.)
It has been a while since I've looked for these kinds of solutions. The one thing that has likely not changed, however, is the fact you'll have to pay for the connections between your computer/server and the phones.
Email is going to be the easiest solution. Calendaring will be the hardest.
Y
SyncML (Score:2)
If you can set up your own SyncML server, then there are clients for pretty much all the major phone platforms.
Google is of course your friend. You could start by looking at stuff like Synthesis AG, SyncEvolution and Funambol.
New palm OS. (Score:2, Insightful)
Isn't there a new Palm version about to be released? I believe it uses WebOS.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Samsung Galaxy S (Score:2, Informative)
Run your own server... (Score:2)
Instead of trusting your data to someone else's cloud, you could always run your own server on something like Zarafa...
I have a Zarafa setup to which i have an iphone and a nexus one synced, all the data travels over SSL. I actually find this a lot more useful than having to connect my phone over usb every day.
I use... (Score:2)
Blackberry
Synch to Evolution using "multisync". I also use "googlesync" on the blackberry, so my assistant can schedule me by editing web interface (or, calendaring events via email -- but the web schedule turns out to be remarkably useful for me). But, I am based on an older Fedora -- there have been improvements in the past 2 years.
Windows/Exchange (Score:2, Insightful)
Your boss can focus more time on actually conducting business and less time trying to come up with "OSS" ways to do it.
Remember, IT works for business--not the
Re:Windows/Exchange (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, we're both going to get voted down because we are a bunch of MS sellouts, despite a full third of my servers/appliances running Linux and other OSS...
wrong! (Score:2, Insightful)
As a sysadmin, you first obligation is to your employer, not your principles.
Wrong, before being a sysadmin, one is a person, and as a person, the principles should be above what the employer demand. Of course, one of the basic principles is also not harm the company you work for :)
example: i would never send spam or do false advertising, even if that would help the company, but of course, i would not force OpenOffice.org to the accounting guy and all his (excel) scripted spreadsheet files. On the other ha
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No, he was right. Your first obligation is to your employer, not your principles. You should be doing the right thing for the company, and if that means proprietary software would be a better fit, or even something that you're not entirely comfortable with, then that's the direction one should take.
If it something where where your principles conflict with what the company is asking of you, then it's time to seek new employment. It's perfectly fine to assert your position and why you think it's better, but u
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Re:Windows/Exchange - What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Really, I must ask... What part of "the two computers use Evolution" did you not understand?
What part of "two computers" did you not understand?
Now, what phone are you recommending?
There was no complaint about services, costs, or anything remotely resembling a question about installing MS SBS.
But, since you brought it up -- a copy of MS SBS costs $1,089 (http://www.microsoft.com/sbs/en/us/pricing.aspx?pf=true) -- and something for taxes. And, of course, a computer to run it on, installation and training... call it $2000 (I'd go higher, but, hey, MS people are fairly inexpensive - normally, I'd figure $100/hour for installation and training, and a $600 + taxes for the server, $2000 combined, and a services budget of 10 hours so $3000 total. Feel free to quote less).
But wait! He still has to buy the smartphones! Doesn't save one single sou.
But wait! For this ABSOLUTELY RETARDED answer (because you didn't answer the question at all), you get a +5 moderation.
So there is more than one idiot involved.
Like I said in another post, I use a Blackberry (I get the one with the biggest keyboard), and I sync to Evolution with multisync.
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Keep in mind, the original requirements was that he not put anything into the cloud. Understandable, but there's a certain cost associated with not putting things into the cloud. Again, amost every flavor of smart phone supports IMAP/POP/Exchange e-mail relatively simply.
You're assuming that one pays retail pr
The advertisement is not reality (Score:3, Insightful)
At least backups are now possible in MS Exchange without shutting down all of the services - but it's still not something that anyone coming from a different MTA would expect and it is very fragile so you don't want somebody l
What's wrong with 'the cloud'? (Score:2)
So long as you have encrypted connections, what's wrong with using 'the cloud'? I don't think you'll find any modern phone that syncs email with a desktop email client anymore. Why the heck would that be desirable anyway?
Also, I'd like to put in a plug for the HP Pre. The contacts and email applications on WebOS are better than what I've seen on Android or iPhone. You can have tons of calendars and even multiple Exchange accounts on the same phone.
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So long as you have encrypted connections, what's wrong with using 'the cloud'? I don't think you'll find any modern phone that syncs email with a desktop email client anymore. Why the heck would that be desirable anyway?
The problem isn't the connection, but who has access to the data once it is on the remote server? That is a difficult enough question with a hosted, off-site server but with cloud computing it becomes unanswerable because the data is spread (or should be) to various geographical locations. How accountable is your cloud provider for you data security?
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For most small businesses their data is safer in the cloud than on their own servers (though the original article submitter is likely savvy enough to keep their servers patched and secure).
I tried to convince a small non-profit that they should move to Google Docs to get calendaring and access to files from home. They refused, saying "We don't trust them with our email and documents, what if hackers broke in". Yet they were using their ISP's POP3 mail server for email with no password encryption, and their
Syncing with USB is outmoded (Score:2)
I don't sync devices with USB to my computer anymore that was last decade. When you say on the cloud what do you mean? You do realize your email travels across the internet unencrypted and is readable by anyone in the path unless you have taken measures to encrypt every email right? The future is sending data directly to the device over the Internet or VPN if your so inclined just as you would your desktop. So setup a mail server and have your device connect to the mail server via imap or POP3 and ical... o
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Isn't Wifi last decade too? And Bluetooth. You're so archaic, my next phone will connect to the net via TCP/IP: "Traditional Carrier Pigeon Internet Protocol". Latency sucks, but bandwidth is incredible. I've seen theoretical transfer rates in excess of 1Gbit/second (with latency in the 1 hour range, depending on your distance from home).
I don't treat my phone as a little computer with much the same capabilities as my big computer because it's lacking the screen and keyboard that my computer has. If I want
What about encryption? (Score:4, Interesting)
If you have ethics and security issues with storing data in the cloud, then shouldn't you also be looking for a device or application that encrypts sensitive data?
Do any Android phones do encryption natively? I've heard that the upcoming Droid Pro claims to. I know the iPhone has encryption support, but I don't know how whether it encrypts all application data or only data that Apple deems 'sensitive'.
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Along those lines, I would think that if "ethical" and "security" are a problem, having valuable data on a phone is downright stupid. How many people lose their phones? I happens all the time.
I don't know what is non-ethical or un-ethical about using a cloud (whatever THAT means). Does that mean you can't use WIFI or 3G to transmit data? Does it mean you have ethical problems with hosted solutions? What would those Ethical problems be if the data was encrypted both in transit and in storage?
I've worked with
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As other posters have pointed out, there are valid reasons to be cautious about the cloud. He's not saying "ethical" as in immoral, but ethics as in a professional responsibility to protect client data.
Until a cloud service takes the blackberry approach where the only person that has the key to decrypt the data stored on their server is the customer himself, Cloud services will have a hard time assuring customers that their data is secure and won't be inadvertently released to another customer. (not to men
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I forgot to answer your point about the phones:
Along those lines, I would think that if "ethical" and "security" are a problem, having valuable data on a phone is downright stupid. How many people lose their phones? I happens all the time.
My Blackberry is protected by a passphrase and auto-locks after 30 seconds of inactivity. (which is set by BES policy, it's not something I can configure).
The data stored on the phone is encrypted.
If someone picks up my phone, they have 8 guesses at the passphrase before the phone wipes itself. As soon as I report the phone lost/stolen to my IT department, the phone will be wiped remotely (or will be wiped the next time the phone is on the cellular network).
I'd
iPhone has encryption support? (Score:2)
From the things that I've seen and heard, the ability for iPhone's encryption to protect your data is somewhat nebulous, since there seem to be plenty of attacks on the access controls to the key.
iOS's claims to do encryption are based on the operating system/hardware to do the encryption for you and you trust that nobody can circumvent or duplicate the hardware. Data's not really safe unless you have encryption all the way to the application layer, so that the data's safe even if attacker has physical acce
SyncEvolution (Score:4, Informative)
Nokia Symbian talks SyncML with SyncEvolution (Score:2)
If you don't want to go cloud you will either have to set up your own server or directly sync between the desktops and the phones. Since you are already set on Evolution you will have to find a solution that works with Evolution. I have done a lot of research into syncing for myself and for my job. For Evolution there is a mature solution called SyncEvolution that even has corporate sponsors. SyncEvolution speaks SyncML, so you simply have to find either phones or a server that speaks SyncML.
For servers: ht [synthesis.ch]
CalDAV or Exchange ActiveSync for OTA Sync... (Score:2)
If your calendaring solution supports publishing via CalDAV or Exchange ActiveSync, then the iPhone will sync over-the-air for both of these systems.
I have a number of clients running Kerio Connect (not Open Source, but runs on Linux if you're interested) that's essentially a drop-in replacement for Exchange and it supports ActiveSync. iPhones sync to this for mail, calendar and contacts very well. As do most other smartphones that aren't a BlackBerry.
If you don't like the idea of using ActiveSync, you can
Why don't you run a calendar server? (Score:2)
Life will be a lot easier for you if you run a calendar server that supports an open standard, such as CalDAV.
Don't bother syncing the phone with the desktop computer, sync the desktop computer and the phone with your calendar server.
Things will work a lot better that way, you can share your calendars with each other and you've got a single point to backup for all calendar information.
run your own server: +1 (Score:2)
I've been really happy with this approach, personally. I run eGroupware [egroupware.org] on my server, and it in turn provides device-agnostic GroupDAV and SyncML services (among others) that I use to keep my smartphone (an iPhone 3G, but options exist for pretty much everything else too) synchronized. I don't use Evolution, but I understand that it is supported as a client (I use Thunderbird / Lightning, although there's currently a bug in one or both of them causing problems that I haven't tracked down).
On top of integrat
"an office with two computers" ??? (Score:3, Funny)
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No that is far less computing power than is sitting on my desk at the moment.
Perfect answer and an imperfect one. (Score:2, Informative)
Zimbra (Score:2)
Re:Android is what you want (Score:4, Interesting)
It won't do it out of the box, but as an open platform it should be possible to make it happen. Might require an a custom OS patch though... As an Android developer myself, I might look into this and release something if someone else doesn't beat me to it.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
As long as we're on the topic, anyone have any success connecting the Android 2.2 Mail app to a courier-imapd server? I'm not having any joy, though it works with mutt / thunderbird / etc.
Though I suppose it would be better to connect to something with a full PIM suite, like Evolution... but haven't convinced myself to migrate there from JPilot + PalmOS beyond an occasional one-way sync.
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Hmm trying to remember what server software I use, I was fairly confident it was courier, although may have changed it a year or so ago. Regardless it works fine for me on the default email program, using 2.1 or 2.2.. sure you got your ports forwarded past the router?
Re:Android is what you want (Score:4, Informative)
It's likely a firewalling issue. I used to work at a web hosting company that mostly used Courier on shared/dedicated/and vps machines, although a few (like my personal vps) ran Dovecot. It was necessary to tweak the firewall rules on a few of the shared machines to get BlackBerry phones to work with their push-pop mail. Not having an Android phone, I don't know if they support push pop from a secondary location like BB does, or not. However, I don't think that the issue is Courier itself, assuming all your authdaemon settings are correct.
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as an open platform
Android was open, but that's changing fast now. Be really careful because e.g. old Motorola phones let you install whatever you wanted. The new ones block installing your own images completely. There are similar jail breaking possibilities to an iPhone and in a similar way you can't rely on them.
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Android is not hardware. Hardware (and firmware, I suppose) is what's blocking this. Not Android itself. Locking down a phone is not a requirement for Android, and there will never be a day when all Android phones are completely locked down.
Re:Android is what you want (Score:4, Insightful)
Correct. I jut bought a new LG Android phone and had no trouble upgrading the custom 2.1 Android OS that it came with to stock google 2.2. If that had not worked, I would have immediately returned the phone as 'defective'.
Re:Android is what you want (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Android is what you want (Score:5, Informative)
Not to mention that the N900 has a PalmOS Garnet emulator available, so you might still be able to run some of your other legacy palm apps:
http://www.access-company.com/products/gvm/index.html [access-company.com]
I myself recently made the move from a Palm TX to an Android phone (purely because I'm a Google Maps Mobile addict), but still find myself carrying the Palm TX around for a lot of legacy apps that I haven't been able to find "modern" equivalents for...
Anyway, I too am quite interested in where all the hardcore Palm users have migrated to (evidently it wasn't WebOS, if only for the lack of SD storage :P )
1password is coming to Android soon (Score:2)
It's a great password manager. Aside from dropbox, it's one of the first things I install on a new machine that will be used by me or a close relative.
On the broader note, though, almost all of these have equivalents or better on the iPhone platform.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, much as it pains me, I think they want iPhones.
If they run Zimbra (open source groupware) as their mail server and use iPhone 4s they can sync email over imap, calendars over caldav and contacts over carddav.
Zimbra has an open sourced evolution connector too, if they don't want to change their desktop software.
Palm Pre interesting too (Score:3, Informative)
Palm Pre is a solution too.
- it features a classic emulator too
- it can sync to servers speaking the Exchage protocol (like evolution)
So although it's not really synching directly over a USB/Serial cable like the question author wanted, the "cloud" in question could very well be their very own exchange-compatible evolution server, accessed over their own secured WiFi network. So i think most ethical problems won't be problematic anymore.
and if someone in the team is less ethically concerned and decides to u
Re:Android is what you want (Score:4, Interesting)
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The n900 has syncevolution, that can supposedly sync with lots of stuff: http://syncevolution.org/documentation/compatibility [syncevolution.org]
However, I'm not sure how reliable it is on the n900 at the moment. I'd like to have some server running or syncing with evolution on the desktop, but when I peeked into this on the talk.maemo.org forums some months ago, it didn't seem very straightforward yet.
Maybe pop into talk.maemo.org and ask how it's doing?
Re:Android is what you want (Score:4, Informative)
The n900 has syncevolution, that can supposedly sync with lots of stuff: http://syncevolution.org/documentation/compatibility [syncevolution.org]
However, I'm not sure how reliable it is on the n900 at the moment.
I've been using syncevolution on the N900 for over six months now, and it's been working like charm, no problems whatsoever.
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Re:Android is what you want (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason Android can be relied upon to play nice, is that, as the only one of the platforms with open code access, you can write the app you need to get it to sync correctly with Evolution - or worst case, convert your Evolution files to what the Android's syncing functionality uses. Either of these solutions, which are not currently possible on a majority of other mass-market smartphones, should work to fit your needs - possibly with the hiring of a handy coder or two or paying someone to write it for the Evolution project.
The other nice part about Android is that there's a fair array of sets - great way for the boss to show off his boss-ness by getting a recent top-of-the-line while your group handles (surprisingly cheap for a smartphone!) sets from last year, WITHOUT losing compatibility with the key app you need.
I believe that Blackberries can also support custom apps, though if your business does FOSS for the sake of Freedom, as opposed to simply cost, the Android OS, being GNU GPL (even if the specific implementation in many phones isn't), may better suit your wishes anyhow.
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"as the only one of the platforms with open code access,"
Maemo. N900.
If you are ethically solf on GPL/FOSS then it si about the best option (that actually works) right now. If you're hardcore then you can find a second hand Openmoko, but I'd advise against it.
The N900 is also an awesome phone and open by design, root access is granted with an installable app and not by a hack, the packing system and graphical software installer are apt based... it's a full linux. It rocks.
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I guess I'll take the bullet.
My iPhone works wonderfully in Ubuntu nowadays. Not jailbroken, just works.
That's not to say the iPhone is OSS friendly, just that Ubuntu has... overcome.
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How do you load software on it without iTunes?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Looks like the iPhone is indeed supported reasonably well through libimobiledevice [libimobiledevice.org] which ships with Ubuntu [ubuntu.com]. Check the video on the libimobiledevice site. You can't go wrong with iPhone really: a lot of people have one which will ensure developer interest, it's on a relatively slow release cycle so the OSS people aren't continually outdated and is generally pretty good about keeping compatibility between versions.
Re:Android is what you want (Score:4, Insightful)
One can't even use even basic canonical open source projects and libraries.
Developers are pretty much forced to use Java everywhere - language that is not very popular in the FOSS community and that is falling further down in popularity every other day now.
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The Google business-class apps are encrypted, private and sync with Android out of the box. And the best part - since Google says you can trust them, it means you have nothing to fear! Of course, you would have to stop using your desktops and switch to Google Apps for your calendaring and email.
Nokia Qt vs. Android (Score:3, Insightful)
How's Android any more open than Nokia?
Nokia just announced its support [nokia.com] for Qt [nokia.com] as the main platform for all of its smartphones, whether Symbian or Linux-based. (Nokia owns Qt, and it's available as LGPL.) They're coming out with an XML-based GUI and HTML5 scripting, too.
You can develop for mobile, Linux, Windows, and Mac platforms. And you can use your choice of Lin/Mac/Win for dev, too, leveraging FOSS developers knowledge of Qt and Qt Creator.
There's an Android port of Qt [gitorious.org], too.
You can also contribute [nokia.com] mods
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
There is a wee bit of difference between declaring support for Qt, and actually having a robust pool of independent developers. Symbian development has slowed to a crawl and developers are abandoning that market to go Android or (to a lesser extent) iOS. As a three-year owner of an E90, which was preceded by a 9300, I would stay far, far away from that Norwegian Blue named Symbian, and go to a platform which might actually outlast the hardware. Symbian is circling the drain, and with it, Qt.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Multisync appears to be dead. The same people are working on Opensync [opensync.org] which does seem to have current activity.
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I Love my Pre, but if you RTS the poster is looking for a non-cloud based solution.
I do think that that's a little unrealistic to avoid the cloud now and do not understand the ethics violations that would ensue, but to each their own.
AT&T? (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortuntely, here in the U.S. [the N900] only works with one carrier, T-Mobile, whose coverage is a joke.
You mean it's only SOLD WITH THE SERVICE by T-Mobile, right?
When I signed up for GSM with AT&T (because only AT&T had a cell covering my Nevada place), they told me I could pull the SIM, put it in any other (US bands) GSM phone, and the service would work. The N900 has GSM on all the bands used in the US, according to its specs.
I haven't tried this yet (with a N900 or any other). But perhaps s
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The Nokia N900 isn't sold with service by T-Mobile or any other US carrier.
Like most of Nokia's smartphones, the N900 can only be bought unlocked in the US, without any service package. It does work as a GSM phone with both carriers. However, it does have better 3g support with T-Mobile. It supports T-Mobile's UMTS but not AT&T's, thought you can still use the slower EDGE there.
AS for coverage, T-Mobile's coverage is pretty good around the big metro areas. There is a problem only in smaller places.
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If you're a doctor, your contact list (if it has any patient contact info) and appointment schedule may fall under HIPAA, making it sensitive information that must be protected.