Synthesis will continue to build their commercial SyncML products, including client products for Windows Mobile, PalmOS as well as the SyncML enabled Todo+Cal task and calendar application for the iPhone based on the SyncML client library. Making this library open source strengthens the foundation of these commercial products and likewise provides a solid base for new products for the various Linux platforms, extending the reach for SyncML in general.
While the open source community can now build on Synthesis' know-how and mature code created in almost a decade of focused work on SyncML solutions, Synthesis profits from a broadened foundation for it's technology, wider audience, more interoperability testing and contributions to the code base from the open source community. To prevent separation of open source and commercial code trees, Synthesis asks contributors to sign the Synthesis Contributor Agreement (SCA), which is an exact copy of the Sun Contributor Agreement, a popular agreement which does not restrict the rights of the contributor.
"The Moblin project is all about interoperability and living on the Internet", said Imad Sousou, director Open Source Technology Center, Intel's Software and Services Group. "By making their SyncML implementation open source, Synthesis has made key contributions to advancing the Moblin project."
The work on synchronisation for Moblin coincided ideally with Synthesis' existing plans for open sourcing the SyncML client engine. libsynthesis becomes available today as an open source building block for reliable SyncML based synchronizations and is used by SyncEvolution v0.9, the open source synchronisation tool that was integrated into Moblin. SyncEvolution provides PIM synchronisation for the GNOME Evolution email and calendaring application and together with libsynthesis is a step towards complete desktop and cloud based SyncML synchronisation for the Moblin platform.
Synthesis believes that strong support for the open, vendor independent synchronisation standard SyncML (OMA DS) is a very important cornerstone of truly versatile mobile computing and collaboration. Real cloud computing becomes reality when mobile devices can synchronize data not only within vendor specific little "clouds", but are truly interoperable across vendors. Mostly unnoticed by the public, SyncML today already provides the foundation, as it is one of the most widely deployed synchronisation technologies built into a large part of today's mobile phones.
Synthesis' mission is to advance truly interoperable solutions based on SyncML into new areas. SyncML is not limited to the data it synchronizes today. Synthesis is convinced that their contribution of a mature implementation of the complex SyncML DS standard in form of a easily embeddable library will help to bring SyncML into many more innovative applications and usage scenarios beyond the ones where it has established already in the past 9 years.
About libsynthesis:
libsynthesis is a complete implementation of the SyncML DS standard, including advanced functionality like filtering, suspend&resume, flexible data formats and much more. Unlike other SyncML libraries, it not only abstracts the SyncML protocol, but also provides converters for all data formats used in SyncML and allows direct mapping to database tables such as SQLite3. libsynthesis also provides stable binary APIs for database interface plugins as well as front end integration, which allows building highly modular applications. The libsynthesis project is hosted on www.synthesis.ch/.... Releases will also become available as part of Moblin from moblin.org.
About Moblin:
Moblin is an optimized Open Source Linux software stack and technology framework that delivers visually rich Internet and media experiences on Intel® Atom(TM) Processor-based devices including MIDs, netbooks/nettops, in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), and embedded systems. Moblin is hosted at www.moblin.org, and is an open source project where key Moblin technologies are incubated and enhanced by the Linux open source community. Moblin based operating system products are created and distributed by Linux Operating System Vendors (OSV).
For more information, please visit www.moblin.org.
About SyncML/OMA DS:
The SyncML initiative was founded in 2000 to develop a universal standard for data synchronization by IBM, Lotus, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Psion and Starfish Software. In 2002, the SyncML initiative was was consolidated with the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) and is since maintained by OMA under the official name OMA DS (data sync).
For more information, please visit www.openmobilealliance.org