Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center

[saracen]

Microsoft is release a beta version of a piece of software they call Windows Mobile Device Center. Basically it's ActiveSync redone and is meant to be a one-stop-shop for all your mobile device needs. This is one area where I believe Ubuntu needs to focus a lot of attention on because if they truly want to gain a larger market share, then there needs to be seamless integration with mobile devices. Everyone has a at least one mobile device today - be it a cell phone, a PDA, or a Blackberry. And these devices will only become more ubiquitous in the future.

I'm hoping that the devs will put some love into this for the next development cycle so that Ubuntu can make even more headway into the market.

[BoneKracker]

I would love to have that too. But I think this should be a 3rd-pary app, not ubuntu-specific code.

It's middleware, and by definition of a modular nature. It should be "many-to-many" (with API's for all major mobile device categories, but also portable to many OS platforms).

So this is something to find out there in FOSS-space and integrate into the distribution, not something for the ubuntu developers to code themselves.

Right now, both Ubuntu and Kubuntu include PIM suites that include mobile device synchronization (albeit less complete or robust than what you want).

I think the need is for "upstream" work. Or maybe there's a network-centric answer (like something out of Google Labs).

[saracen]

I disagree that it shouldn't be an Ubuntu project. The devs continue to innovate with certain aspects of the OS (such as upstart, the new init process for Edgy). I don't see why they shouldn't innovate when it comes to something like this, which is very crucial for widespread adoption.

Clearly anyone is welcome to help out and I'm sure many people will. But just waiting for "upstream" or someone else in the FOSS community to carry the beacon is not the right approach. The devs need to lead the way on this one and then once they have a solid base for the application I'm sure many will jump in and add some cool functionality to it.

[BoneKracker]

I didn't mean we have to "wait" idly for upstream to just randomly happen upon the improvements our community desires.

What I meant was that we should seize upon a promising-looking external product and build (or get other to build) on it. It's open source. They would almost certainly incorporate any well-engineered improvements.

The important point I was trying to make is that a primary requirement for the success of any middleware product is adoption. It's driven by network-effect economics. The number of products that will produce interfaces via a given middleware's API is driven by the number of products on the other side of that middleware.

So I'm with you as long as whatever app is developed uses API's / interfaces / middleware that's intended for a broader user base than just Ubuntu.

[saracen]

Of course, that is part of the Ubuntu and in general the Free Software philosophy. Upstart is a perfect example of a framework that was designed by Ubuntu but is intended to be adopted and built upon by others.

There are vairious existing PDA/mobile syncing programs out there, none of which I have found to be comparable to the support for that on windows. Cleraly though we shouldn't aim to reinvent the wheel and whatever is out there that is usable we should improve and build upon.