[NCLUG] PalmOS + Linux

[dobbster]

Hi folks,

Last week I purchased an Palm M130 in hopes of improving my truly
incredible lack of organization.  It's the most inexpensive color PalmOS
system Circuit City had, and one the salesperson claimed would
Linux-compatible.  It runs PalmOS 4.1.  I have never used a Palm Pilot
before; they're rather nifty!

I like it and it seems as if it could be very handy.  However, I'm not
sure how to sync it up to my Linux machines.  I'm not trying to do
anything fancy; I'd be happy if I could simply transfer addresses and
calendar data.  It'd be nice to transfer text files as well.

I'd mainly like to transfer korg's data files, which are in text.  It
would be more than sufficient to swap phone/address lists/to-do lists
(which are already part of korg's file format), text files, and HTML
files.  Synchronizing IMAP email headers would be great, too.  Of
course, the list goes on, but if I could simply transfer text files, I'd
probably be happy.  I could then at least write perl scripts to convert
the text files to korg's required format and so forth.  (Come to think
of it though, I'm not sure how I would convert these files into a format
which I could import into the PDA's built-in software...)

Well anyway, I've poked around and found some things that seem to be
PalmOS apps.  In particular, I noticed http://palm.freshmeat.net. 
Still, I can't quite find basic synchronization software.  I'd be
willing to switch to a different calendaring system and/or office suite
- even MS Outlook for Linux! :-)

I purchased a USB/9-pin serial adapter, so I can use either USB nor
serial (although I do not own a USB hub).  I could probably do simple
serial C/perl programming If I had to.  I'd rather not.

I am willing to pay for software, although I'd prefer free and/or open
source software.  Do you have any recommendations for software I might
use?  My desktop machine is currently still running Mandrake version
8.2 (2.4.8-26mdk i686).
 
I recently repaired a critical problem with my system (the heat sinks
and fans
were working well, but it needed an additional fan - the kind you put in
your window - blowing directly onto the system board, to start
functioning again.  This is irrelevant but I thought it was odd.)  I am
planning to convert to KRUD.

Thanks - Any suggestions would be gratefully appreciated!