Hardy: Time for sync project focus and here is how

[John Carr]

Hi guys,

Hope I've made it to the correct list! I was just pointed to a couple of
pages and asked to respond on behalf of Conduit. This e-mail is about
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PimSyncPlan and a recent thread discussing it (I
think on here?)

I'd like to discuss the aims of Conduit and how we can reduce the
duplication of effort on the sync front.

Conduit:
 * Provides sync as a desktop wide service (dbus)
 * Makes sync easy (our GUI)
 * Makes sync plug and play (HAL, avahi, etc)
 * Makes the desktop connected (syncing online, syncing PC to PC)

We provide a GUI and dbus mechanism for syncing on the free desktop. We
support our own sync-engine core but are working to support opensync as
well. We can sync your applications to devices, to other boxes on your
network and to various "Web apps". We hope to become a stock GNOME
application in the medium term (and are moving over to GNOME hosting as we
speak).

Martin, you ask what we can provide. Hopefully I can persuade you that the
answer to the spec is to deliver Conduit to Ubuntu users rather than
implement a 4th GNOME front-end to opensync.

Your desktop, in your lap
-------------------------
Evolution and Tomboy can be synced desktop to laptop, over the network.
This uses avahi to discover PC's on the local network and a simple HTTP
protocol for doing the actual syncing. This will also be true for F-Spot
shortly - one of our developers has recently written a patch to beef up
their dbus interface. (Obviously its PC to PC, not *specifically* desktop
to laptop).

Check out the low, and i mean low.. sorry, quality video here:
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-2623798477165899506&hl=en-GB

This pretty damn cool to play with, and you don't need to master anything
arcane to use it.

Pocket your desktop
-------------------
A lot of people want device sync. We are getting there. As a small team we
do have a limit on the amount of devices we have to play with. Our main
focus so far has been the iPod and N800, cos I have an iPod and John has
an N800. You can see our plug and play (for iPod) kicking in here:

http://files.conduit-project.org/Conduit-0.3.0-screencast-small.ogg

I also own a Windows Mobile device so expect WM5/WM6 to "just work" in the
near future. Generally if it has opensync support, or dbus bindings of
some kind, then we can support it fairly easily.

Take your desktop online
------------------------
As you know, certain parts of GNOME are pushing for an online desktop.
Conduit enables you to put your Tomboy notes online already, and in our
trunk you can sync with Google Calendar. Your photos can be synced to
multiple photo sites.

Always up to date
-----------------
Our patches to Tomboy have given us change notification. In theory
Evolution has this too. And the F-spot patch will have it. It enables us
to support "always up to date" syncing. Think - you add a note to tomboy
and it immediately goes to your phone and your laptop. Same for contacts.

Community presence
------------------------------------
I think Conduit has shown itself to be a team player - we have submitted
patches to Tomboy, libgpod (got photo db supported fully from python
land), synce (I got devices with a Samsung processor working). I think
we've also done an EOG patch, and obviously there is the F-spot patch we
are working on. We also created and maintain the evolution-python
bindings.

Our relationship with the opensync goes from strength to strength, and I
should be present at the next opensync meet in Germany.

On top of this, as Ubuntu users ourselves.. we will support any effort to
incorporate our framework in our fave distro.

Pretty GUI
----------
So far this stuff could be entirely dbus based. But yes, apparently our UI
is pretty as well. Users have been known to get excited and start jumping
up and down on sight, especially when you plug and unplug and the UI stays
up to date and everything. Oh and those curvy bits. Phwoar.

http://www.unrouted.co.uk/Screenshot.png

Konduit, Monduit, Xonduit, Wonduit
----------------------------------
Konduit seems likely to happen. I quite like the idea of a Windows port.
Imagine if you could sync your Windows desktop and your Linux laptop over
the network. Or even, sync between installations on the same hard drive!
No longer would you "import" your bookmarks on install, you'd set up a
partnership!

The Hildon port is another fave. You bring your N800 home and it connects
to your wifi. The avahi kicks in and it syncs you up to date,
automagically.

Conclusion
----------
Personally I think that with some help on the upstream bits (bluetooth HAL
polish) and Conduit finishing off the opensync bridge (to enable more
PDA/Phone support), Conduit can deliver this spec and a whole lot of other
tasty synce features for Ubuntu. With a KDE/Python volunteer we should be
able to get there for for Kubuntu too.

You might want to check out John Stowers and his blog:
http://www.johnstowers.co.nz/ - he mentions a few new additions - i can't
keep up with them all! For real-time flaming, you can find us in #conduit
on GIMPnet. I'm Jc2k, and John S is nzjrs.

Sorry for the length of this e-mail. And it's only a subset of what we
have in store for Conduit too. I am intentionally vague to try and keep
this email down in size. I'll answer specific questions in more detail, if
desired.

Thanks for your time
John C