Re: Gnome and Zaurus

["Timothy R. Butler" <gnome uninetsolutions com>]

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Hi,

  I just got my Z this week, but I think I might be able to answer a few of 
the questions here.

> Also interested if the Zaurus can sync with Evolution?

  There are a few attempts at Evolution syncing at 
http://www.killefiz.de/zaurus/showapps.php?cat=2 . I don't use Evolution, so I 
can't really say how they work.

> If you weren't aware, the Zaurus uses software written by Trolltech
> and the Qt widget set so you will probably find KDE programs before
> GNOME programs.

  That is true. I'm not sure if it will make it into KDE 3.1 or not, but there 
is a new syncronization program integrated into KDE called KitchenSync that 
will sync with the Zaurus (as well as most other PDA's.) 
 
  It might be messy, but potentially, you could write a tool to sync Evolution 
via KitchenSync if one were so inclined. What I'd love to see is a common 
syncronization and PIM system between GNOME and KDE so one could move back 
and forth seemlessly. Anyway...

> I've never owned a PDA before, but most people that have say the Palm
> applications are much more polished. Syncing under Linux may require a

  FWIW, I've found the Zaurus similarly polished to my Palm Vx, although there 
are a few things that are a bit more complicated. Also, the networking 
configuration for Ethernet over USB doesn't quite work right out of the box, 
but then again Palm doesn't support Ethernet over USB at all...

  Anyway, overall I am quite pleased with the default applications. I'd heard 
a lot of complaints about them, but for basic information management they 
seem to be quite good. Also, the Zaurus handled IR transfer of my contacts 
and todo lists absolutely beautifully from my Palm OS 3.5 pda.

  The main hitch I've found so far is that Qtopia Desktop for Linux isn't the 
most polished. You might run ldconfig after installing it, and then change 
LD_LIBRARY_PATH and QTOPIADESKTOPPATH before each use (I setup a little shell 
script to do this while launching the tool). Additionally annoying, Qtopia 
Desktop doesn't integrate with KDE any better then it does GNOME, so it 
sticks out like a sore thumb no matter what desktop you use.

> kernel recompile (your desktop kernel) to enable "Ethernet over USB"
> or you can buy a CF network card for it.

  Its worth noting that Mandrake 8.2 includes the needed patch, I'm not sure 
how the other distros are doing with this however.


   Best,
      Tim

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