advice please: XDA Orbit / Graphite / Outlook / Gmail / CrossOver Office / HEADACHE!

[pompeyjohn]

Hi all, I’d like some advice please.

I am still fairly new to all this so please treat me as a noob.

This weekend I removed all traces of Windows from my two computers at home. It is now entirely Linux powered 

It is also upgrade time for me with my phone network (02 in the UK) and I’d like to get a phone that syncs up to one contacts list and does email. Wifi is a must, so I was thinking of the 02 xda Orbit, or maybe the Graphite (when it comes out)

I have also recently set up a gmail account. Busy time!

So now I am not sure what the next step is.

If I ran CrossOver office, would I be able to sync contacts/tasks/mails with (either) devices?

Should I just use gmail on the phone? (Trying to get my PST files into Gmail is proving a *massive* headache though!) and it looks like then the phone would have two contact lists? One for email and one for the phone.

Is there a better solution? I am quite happy to run thunderbird/evolution/something else on the computer, and or phone.

Nothing is set in stone here. I am completely flexible.

I am keen to hear whatever you recommend is the best solution.

Thanks in advance,
John

[Nik_Doof]

As ActiveSync would require direct access to the USB or Bluetooth, i doubt it unless the APIs are there (not to sure with CrossOver, but its not done for Wine).

Syncing in Linux with WM5 is a pain, at best you'll have to hand compile Synce and the OpenSync plugin, then setup OpenSync and Evolution. I currently export my info to vcal/vcf, do some script fu on them and bluetooth over to my mobile and use SkTools to remove any dupes.

Another option is to have QEMU running with Windows and ActiveSync on, then forward the USB device onto QEMU to use. I had this half working last night but the XP install i've got has issues with loading new drivers, i'll try again tonight :)

[pompeyjohn]

Thanks for that response - very very helpful.

I thought about the idea of using a host operating system, but I was concerned about processor speed and system load.

This would be for a laptop that is a few years old, and a mail client is the sort of thing I'd always have running. I am very keen to hear the results of your XP tests. If QEMU works, it may be the solution.

If not, I guess the alternatives are using a java gmail app on the phone and manually keeping the contacts inline.

Or wait to see what happens with this OpenMoko project.

[Nik_Doof]

I custom patched QEMU 0.8.2 with the USB Multi-interface mod (needed to pickup a HTC device) and tried to set it up, Devices is detected in WinXP but then errors like a hardware issue. It'd possibly work with VMWare as you can specifically assign a device to the VM but i dont think QEMU is up to the job quite yet.

[pompeyjohn]

Thanks for the update. I'll keep hacking, and if I have any success, I'll post about it here.

cheers :)