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I'm looking to ditch the monster that is Apple, can I run Ubuntu and an Android phone in similar format to MacBook and IOS?

Namely, is there support to have calendars/contacts/bookmarks/reminders/photos etc... all syncing over wifi between my handset and Ubuntu?

Big step so wanna be sure!

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Android ties into Gmail not a local computer. Managing your contacts from Gmail and Google+ is easy and quite good.

Using Android should give you all you need. Getting yourself a google mail address would be the first step then importing all your contacts into there. From there you can tie them to their google+ accounts, emails and phone numbers.

Once you get a android phone you tie your Google Mail address to it so it imports all your contacts from Gmail into phone for you. As soon as you start signing into Twitter, Facebook etc. It does most of this for you. Pulling pictures and contacts together to build your phone book for you.

Word of warning though. I find facebook takes over your address book with people you barely no or are just friends with on facebook so i dont let that sync all my contacts. ( Recently deleted my account )

It can be done. But these eco systems tie you in which ever one you choose to use.

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  • Cheers Bill, comprehensive answer! I'm already a google user for mail but I don't want to really use them. I thought Linux and Ubuntu may be interopable like OSX and iOS are in terms o the handset being an extension of the laptop environment. Initially that's what I thought Ubuntu One was? I obviously need to research more! Aug 29, 2012 at 13:41
  • Ubuntu One as far as im aware is like google drive and dropbox....? But i may be wrong!
    – LinuxBill
    Aug 29, 2012 at 13:47
  • I meant android an Ubuntu obviously lol sorry! Aug 29, 2012 at 14:02
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    I guess I'll have to wait for a similar setup to iCloud from the Linux world for now! Hopefully arrives soon so I can kiss apple and their exponential moneymaking business model goodbye. Aug 29, 2012 at 14:03
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There isn't ONE application that does this. It isn't ONE application that does this in the Apple ecosystem either. They just refer to all of the different things working together as the iCloud. As William Fleming has pointed out, everything syncs to Google, as far as mail, contacts, calendar goes. You just point your desktop email and calendar client (Evolution, Thunderbird, etc) to your Google account and they will stay in sync between your phone and your laptop. A Google/Gmail account is necessary for an Android phone, just as a Apple account is necessary for an iPhone.

For bookmarks, you can use Chrome on your phone and PC, and the bookmarks will stay in sync, provided you log into both with your Google account.

For documents/photos you can use the Dropbox service, and you have 2GB of free shared cloud storage. You can pay for more if necessary. When you install the Dropbox app on your phone, you can set it up so that all photos are automatically uploaded to Dropbox, which will automatically sync with your laptop. Any documents placed in your Dropbox folder on your PC will be instantly uploaded to Dropbox, and you can retrieve them on your phone with the Dropbox app.

Welcome to Ubuntu and Linux in general. I wish you luck!

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Been a long time coming, and here it is: My Setup For Ubuntu and Android Syncing.

  • Email: Gmail on the Nexus 7, Thunderbird on Ubuntu.

  • Web Browsing: Chrome and Chrome. You could do Firefox and Firefox though, or Opera and Opera, if that's your thing.

  • Note syncing. I setup Tomboy notes with Ubuntu One note sync. Details here. I installed TomboyInstall tomboy package on my Ubuntu machines, and downloaded the Windows version for my two Windows boxes (I know, shame on me), and used Tomdroid on my Android.

  • Password sync: Keepass2Install keepass2, and KeePassDroid.

  • Dropbox for file sync - it's also how I get my keepass database from Ubuntu to Android.

Thats the setup I have right now, it might change a little bit, but not that likely.

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