Sometimes things just work!

It's really nice when technology just works the way it's supposed to!

I mentioned a while ago that I had installed Ubuntu Linux on my new computer. It has been a source of nice surprises for me. One simple one was on Friday I needed to install my inkjet printer- the big laser printer was doing weird things, mainly because a piece of paper had got jammed in its innards. Anyway the inkjet was plugged in the USB port at the back of the computer. I fully expected that having turned the printer on I would need to tell the computer what sort it was, and then possibly go looking for drivers etc. But by the time I looked at the screen after I pressed the power button on the printer, a message was showing in the notification area telling me what kind of printer it was, where it was and would I like to configure it or just accept the default. Nice one!

This afternoon I synchronised my PDA to the computer. This has always been a problem for me in the past. As you can imagine, a PDA running windows does not always want to talk to a Linux computer. The good people at the SynCE and Open Sync projects have done amazing things lately with this whole area of syncing a Windows Mobile device to various flavours of Linux desktop environments.

The project is so advanced that after you sync the two, you can access you appointments and task lists by clicking on the date on the panel. I thought that was sweet, but then I wondered was there an applet whereby you can search for contacts just by clicking the panel... and yes there is. It will even let you search for Bob Smith (or anybody else) then either look up his details or open an email window to compose an email, using the email program you specify in the "preferred applications" section.

I was very impressed with all of this. It starts with the Linux desktop being able to talk to a windows PDA then using the information shared to make life a little simpler for users. I am very impressed with the effort that's gone into all of this, especially when it just works.