My First Week With Jolicloud
Early last week a received an invite to download the alpha version of the new netbook OS from Netvibes founder Tariq Krim. It’s called Jolicloud, and I’ve been pretty pleased so far with how it’s running on my Acer Aspire One with a paltry 512MB of RAM.
First off, you should know that Jolicloud approaches applications differently than you’d probably think. Jolicloud focuses more on cloud applications. They integrate cloud apps into the OS using applications that simply open up the website in Mozilla’s new Prism software. Prism is basically a web browser without any navigation buttons or any other features except for displaying the website. For example, the Jolicloud Applications page has an application for Pandora radio. When installed, it puts a Pandora icon on your desktop. When you click on the icon, it simply opens the Pandora website full-screen for your enjoyment.
The reason why the Prism feature is so important to netbooks is because it uses less resources than full-fledged Firefox. With 512MB of RAM, my Aspire One appreciates that very much.
Even though Jolicloud has a very heavy emphasis on the cloud, it’s really just Ubuntu with some cosmetic changes. The Jolicloud desktop looks exactly like the one on Ubuntu netbook remix, except completely black. Also, from what I’ve seen, it’s not completely stripped down and devoid of utility, like the copy of Linpus Linux that was included on my Aspire One. So, you can pretty much install any Linux program you like without plunging into the murky depths of dependency hell.
All in all, Jolicloud is an impressive take on the netbook OS, and it’s not even out of alpha. The cloud focus is a great addition, it looks great, boots fast, and is pretty peppy on my laptop. I can’t wait to see what the beta will have in store.
Thanks for the review! I applied for an invite but haven’t received one yet
To console myself, I’ve been playing with Moblin (I wrote a review here). If you get bored with Jolicloud, you can always give it a try!