How to share address book data between MacOS X and Windows/Linux?

We're using a PC and a MacBook at home which are connected via a local network. We'd like to have a "master" address book for both computer, so that when contact information is changed on one of the computers, the change can be automatically also synced with the other computer.

How could we do that?

At the moment, we're using the MacOS X 10.6 AddressBook.app and Outlook XP on Windows XP for managing addresses, but we'd be also willing to switch from outlook to something different, if it would make things easier...

Would there be a way to sync between MacOS X and Linux? I'm asking, as I'm currently considering replacing Windows XP by Linux and using Windows on the PC only if there is no alternative in a virtual machine.

MostlyHarmless

Posted 2012-09-15T16:15:01.923

Reputation: 1 708

3You want to share between windows, mac and linux? Where does linux come into it? You only mentioned osx and xp. – terdon – 2012-09-15T16:41:09.610

@terdon: good point - I edited the explanation in my question. – MostlyHarmless – 2012-09-15T19:27:42.397

Answers

If both machines are on a LAN you could set up an LDAP server on one of them and make both system's email clients use it. Wikipedia has a List of LDAP software for various platforms.

martineau

Posted 2012-09-15T16:15:01.923

Reputation: 3 849

1Thanks for your suggestions! What happens, if the computer with the server is switched off? Does the client then have a local copy of the data to work with or is the contact information only available as long as the server is available? – MostlyHarmless – 2012-09-15T19:24:18.613

1@Martin: I'm not sure, there may be a cached copy depending on the OS the client is running on. – martineau – 2012-09-15T20:01:07.870

You should be able to do this by syncing both computers with gmail contacts. Not an ideal or elegant solution, but it should work. You can also probably do it through itunes on both machines.

terdon

Posted 2012-09-15T16:15:01.923

Reputation: 45 216

How is a cloud solution inelegant? IMO, it's the perfect solution for what the OP needed. If you want synchronization among multiple platforms with different set of tools, generally the best solution is to have the master copy in the cloud in a tool-agnostic format. – Lie Ryan – 2012-09-15T17:10:09.123

1@LieRyan: IMHO this is not elegant, as I do not want to give all my contact information (personal info about other people) to a data collector like Google. Although I highly appreciate the quality of free google software and services, I have a very bad feeling storing any "confidential" content in their services. – MostlyHarmless – 2012-09-15T19:26:02.430

1@Martin, exactly, any solution involving servers or software you do not control is not elegant. – terdon – 2012-09-15T21:34:28.130

If you used the Mozilla Thunderbird email client on both systems, there are extensions to sync them via the Internet.

Here's some additional information about sharing address books using Thunderbird.

martineau

Posted 2012-09-15T16:15:01.923

Reputation: 3 849

2A variation of this theme not requiring an extension would be to configure Thunderbird (or perhaps some other email client) to store its address book file(s) in a shared Dropbox folder which would automatically sync their contents between the two computers. – martineau – 2012-09-15T20:07:22.470