Funambol Isn't Original As Described By Silicon.com, But It Is Interesting

Via Silicon.com, Mobile push email goes open source says that

...Funambol, the company behind the open source client and server product, has already seen 250,000 downloads of the enterprise software, which can support any WAP device, as well as BlackBerrys and handsets based on the Windows Mobile operating system.

The Funambol service is distributed free under the open source GPL (General Public Licence) although users can also buy support and a more feature-rich offering from the company...

Well, they didn't *link* Funambol.com in the Silicon.com story. Why not do that, kids?

Anyways... it is sort of original. For a Microsoft platform. But the Simputer already has email ability which one can synchronize with a Linux system. Huh? Why yes, of course. There's a browser and email. And it's Open Hardware.

So it's not so new a concept, but it is new in that it does some stuff that is being done on non-Microsoft systems, and thus gets more hardware support - at least for now. Drivers for Linux are a consistent problem that hardware manufacturers still haven't pulled their round bone out of their round hole on. Think about it.

But as hard as I am on 'originality', I like the idea. The funambol project - formerly Sync4j - shows that it's much more than the diminutive mention at Silicon.com that incorrectly focused on originality instead of interesting things:

The Funambol project (earlier known as Sync4j) was started in 2001 by developers who saw the promise of SyncML for mobile computing, but did not see an open source Java implementation. The Funambol project has gone well beyond the original server engine, and now includes administration tools and client-side APIs. Funambol has been downloaded more than 250,000 times, with steadily growing monthly downloads, making the Funambol project one of the largest mobile developer communities in the world. Funambol is in production use on three continents and supports millions of end-users...

Of course, Richard Stallman would be quick to point out that anything Java isn't completely GPL, and like Stallman or not - Stallman is right. Personally, I detest Java (for that and other reasons). But when I look at what the project does:

Funambol consists of:

• Funambol Data Synchronization Server: a mobile application server providing synchronization services for wireless clients and PCs, including push email.
• Funambol Device Management: an OMA DM server to remotely manage mobile devices.
• Funambol Connectors: gateways to file systems, databases, email systems, and applications for two-way synchronization with existing data assets.
• Funambol Client Plug-ins: protocol extenders and clients for Outlook, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm and iPod so users can synchronize their email messages and PIM data (address book, calendar, tasks and notes) with the server.
• Funambol Software Development Kit: tools to develop sometimes-connected mobile applications on devices (in Java - J2SE and J2ME - and C++) and to add data sources to the server.

Well, it's hard to argue ability on this one. What Funambol is - it's actual strengths (as opposed to 'originality' based on what Silicon.com wrote) - are interesting. In some ways, it is original and the Silicon.com article didn't clarify the strengths of Funambol.

At the end of the day, though, I'm the sort of person who won't buy a house if I believe that the materials are inferior. I don't like Java, so I wouldn't buy it. Some people might find it useful, though, and there's no telling what sort of business proposition it could become.

As you can tell, I have mixed feelings about it.