This section describes applications which can synchronise their data with your PDA. The applications generally use pilot-link to provide communication with the PDA. Coldsync provides conduit capabilities to application that are not specifically written with PDAs in mind.
JPilot is a Personal Information Manager (PIM) that provides a replacement for the Palm Desktop software provided for Windows and the Mac. JPilot provides desktop versions of the Palm address book, todo list, calendar and memopad. JPilot can also be used to install applications onto the PDA.
JPilot is available with most Linux distributions. You can also download JPilot from http://www.jpilot.org. To use JPilot you must have pilot-link installed. As JPilot is a gtk+ application, you will also need gtk+.
Gnome-pilot aims to provide PDA connectivity for the Gnome desktop. Gnome-pilot provides conduits for the Gnome PIM applications, a control centre applet for configuring the link, and a panel applet for dislaying the hotsync status.
Gnome-pilot uses a daemon process to communicate with the PDA via pilot-link. Client applications use the daemon, rather than call pilot-link directly. The daemon must be running in order to use the client applications such as the conduits.
Gnome-pilot should be available as part of Gnome. The home page for the project is at http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnome-pilot/.
TODO: The above is based on a glance at the website. I use JPilot, but when I get time I'll give gnome-pilot a proper try.
KPilot is the KDE equivalent of Gnome-pilot. KPilot provides basic PIM functionality, as well as conduits to KDE applications such as KOrganizer.
As with gnome-pilot, kpilot uses a pilot-link via a daemon process.
KPilot is available from http://www.slac.com/pilone/kpilot_home
TODO: Again, I don't really use KDE, but will give it a spin.
XNotesPlus provides a means to post small notes on your X-Windows desktop. These notes can be shared as memos with your PalmOS device.
The XNotesPlus web page at http://www.graphics-muse.org/xnotes/xnotes.html contains full installation and use instructions. I suggest using the prebuilt binaries if you can.
One caveat is that you need to create an "Xnotes" category on your PalmOS device, if you intend to export notes.
XNotes is shareware, and not freely distributable.