Aun’s Blog

Getting an IMAP client to use Gmail contacts

A lot of people prefer using a thick client for their e-mail instead of the Gmail web interface. I thought I’d give it a try - there are numerous things I like about Gmail, and having used it for a while now, my contacts list is humungous. If you start using a thick client, that means you have to somehow get a new contact list going, or import from somewhere else… no! Thanks to the creator of GCalDaemon - this OS-independent Java program will allow you to set up an LDAP server on your local machine, that acts as a middle man between your client and “Google Data”. The instructions on the page are quite detailed and you should be up and running in approximately 10 minutes. Now you should be able to auto-complete the addresses in your thick client, just like you can in Gmail. Enjoy!

Migrating from Windows to Ubuntu

I was primarily a Windows user, before I started to play around with Ubuntu. First off, I installed it on my home laptop, to see how well it would work… I was thoroughly impressed. Of course, on this laptop, I didn’t need anything but a browser, pidgin, and the basic Office suite. The real test was going to be switching to Ubuntu at work. Migrating away from the beast, Outlook, to Thunderbird / Lightning. Surprisingly, it was very easy:

• Install Thunderbird on your Windows box (the one with Outlook)
• Fire it up, and you’ll get the option to Import - follow the steps to import from Outlook
• After the mail is imported, browse to the C:\Documents and Settings\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\(username)\. Copy the folder with the random letters.

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Tags: linux, outlook, thunderbird, ubuntu, Windows