How to Sync PocketPC to Linux?

Giggles Of Doom asks: "I am a long time Windows user who is getting ready to make the plunge and move to Linux. Microsoft is just getting on my nerves. Anyway, I have made a little list of things I do in Windows that I will still need to be able to do in Linux. A BIG one of those is syncing the data from my PDA with my main computer's mail program. The mail program will probably be KMail, unless others can suggest a better one and give reasons why, and my PDA is a Audiovox Maestro, which is really a rebranded Toshiba 'PDA-1032' running Pocket PC 2002. It has a USB cradle. What Linux solutions are there for this task? I would hate to have everything else work great, but have to boot to Windows or load VMware just to sync my contact info. Remember, I am a Windows user trying to convert, but any solution would have to be pretty user friendly."

Comments

LDAP?

[Cycon]

(please ignore previous post. Preview button/Submit button, same thing, right?)

I was wondering the same question myself recently, although I don't mind booting into Windows periodically to do the actual syncing. I have an iPAQ, also running Pocket PC 2002.

What I had in mind was this:

Sync iPAQ to Outlook under Windows, using USB cradle

Sync Outlook to an LDAP server

Sync Evolution to LDAP server (or KMail if you prefer, and LDAP is supported)

What I haven't fully explored yet is Outlook's ability to sync to an LDAP server. I'm thinking of running one of my personal linux fileserver, not just to keep my iPAQ and Evolution in sync, but to simply have a cetralized place to keep all of my contact information (calendaring would be great too though).

Is anyone aware of a better solution than just rolling my own LDAP server to be compatible with Outlook?

--Cycon

Homebrew it!

[RevAaron]

Provided you have some network device for your PDA- be it a serial cable (for SLIP/PPP- not USB), ethernet or wireless would work, one could whip up a decent syncing solution in a couple days' time. Wouldn't do everything, but Calendar, Contacts and Todo would be pretty straightforward.

I wonder why no one else has done it yet. I have iPAQ hardware, but I don't use PocketPC for anything but a platform for running my own PDA environment, Dynapad.

I'm confident that I could hack something together using PocketC on the PDA and Perl on the desktop within a weekend. If anyone wants to sponsor me in this, I could do this. By sponsor, I mean for a price. Not a very high price. The person fronting the money can choose the license under which it lives - LGPL, closed-source commercial product or whatever. If there are any serious takers, email me and we can discuss what email app to support and cost, and so on.