Linux Unwired [Electronic resources]

7.7 Graphical Applications

Linux has several popular graphical user interface systems, the most well-known being KDE and GNOME. These projects both have tools that provide an easy-to-use interface to your system's Bluetooth devices. At the time of writing, neither project is an official part of the KDE or GNOME desktop, but both will be integrated in future. This section presents a brief survey of the tools available and where to get them.

7.7.1 KDE

The KDE Bluetooth Framework's home page is at http://kde-bluetooth.sourceforge.net/. Its features include:

A control center plug-in to configure Bluetooth devices

An OBEX server application

An OBEX sending client

Graphical exploration of remote devices

Cell phone handsfree implementation using your computer's microphone and speakers

Proximity-based screen locking

The KDE Bluetooth Framework can be downloaded from the project's web page. Figure 7-8 and Figure 7-9 show KDE's Bluetooth applications in action.

7.7.2 GNOME

The GNOME Bluetooth subsystem's home page is available at http://usefulinc.com/software/gnome-bluetooth. Download it from the project's home page. RPM and Debian packages are also available. Features of the GNOME Bluetooth subsystem include:

An OBEX server application

An OBEX sending client

A phone manager application allowing sending and receiving of SMS messages

Graphical exploration of remote devices

Programming libraries for creating Bluetooth-aware applications in C, Python, or C#

Figure 7-10 and Figure 7-11 show GNOME's Bluetooth features in action.

7.7.2.1 Synchronization

If your PDA uses Bluetooth and you use Ximian Evolution as your calendar and contacts management tool, you can synchronize the two over Bluetooth using the Multisync application. Multisync is available in most Linux distributions, and you can download it from its home page at http://multisync.sourceforge.net.