When I switched over to Ubuntu as my primary operating system there were several issues with integrating some existing hardware. Possibly the issue that consumed so much time trying to sort out was syncing my HTC Touch Diamond mobile phone with a linux email client. Syncing directly from Ubuntu to the phone just did not seem to work reliably at all. Synchronisations didnt seem to be automated and there were many times where the entire calendar and contacts were filled with multiple duplicates.

There was also still one application I use which is only available for windows so I installed my old copy of windows xp pro on Virtualbox with Ubuntu 9.04 as the host. Since I had installed windows xp in this fashion I also installed outlook which gave access to all my old messages without having to export the pst file to another application. I havent ever had any real success exporting pst files to other applications in the past anyway.

Now I switched from Evolution to Thunderbird for emails in Ubuntu and set up Zindus to sync my contacts with Gmail and Lightning to synchronise my Thunderbird calendar with Gmail. Everything is now backed up in my Gmail account incase there is ever a problem with my local copy.

Next I set up Google Calendar Sync to sync my Gmail Calendar with outlook. Now whenever I boot Windows XP in Virtualbox and connect the HTC Touch Diamond, my calendar on the HTC and the outlook calendar is automatically updated and synchronised with Lightning via Gmail!

Emails are handled via imap so the only item not being synchronised at present is contacts but I can live with that.

I hope this post might save you some time if you are seeking a similar solution.

My next phone will hopefully be open source operating system and another step from commercially restricted software will be welcomed.