Re: [SAGE] Syncing PDA and Linux

[Stephen L Johnson <sjohnson@monsters.org>]

On Mon, 2007-01-08 at 15:05 -0500, Tom Reingold wrote:
> pilot-link has trashed my data twice. (I believe kpilot is built upon 
> pilot-link.) 

I don't know kpilot specifically, but more linked to the libpisock
library which implements the low level communications and basic data
access. Most of the data manipulation and comparing is done by the
application themselves. 

I've lost data myself (most by to my own hacking and experimentation).
So I do periodic, independent backs with pilot-xfer. And I'll use
whatever backup mechanism the desktop software does. pilot-xfer is my
off site backup.

> I wouldn't use it again. I had to restore from my copy on 
> Windows back onto my Palm. If I never used Windows, or if I switched 
> entirely from Windows to Linux, I would have lost several years of data. 
> That would have been a disaster.

I'll only use Windows if a vendor uses some type of Windows based
installers. Thankfully, I don't have to resort to that often. And I have
to admit I had to use a Windows Network HotSync to get the port Network
HotSync was using. They changed it on this new version. (grumble,
grumble)

> 
> My conclusion is that a Palm is no good if all you have on your desktop 
> is Linux.
> 
> I expect that happy pilot-link users will pipe up now, to counter my 
> argument. After all, I'm just one datum.

Well I've been HotSync for years on all of the Palm devices I've owned.
It works most of the time. And when not, I've been able to recover from
any data mishaps. And I've seen my cases of Windows HotSync problems as
well. But I've not seen a case where a cold reset and restore wouldn't
fix. (OK there was that one instance of the magic smoke escaping...) 

> Tom Reingold
> Noo Joizy
-- 
Stephen L Johnson <sjohnson@monsters.org>