thechromesource – Google Chrome and Chrome OS News and Resources

Review: Jolicloud Netbook OS

Posted on 03. Jan, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments

We’ll be taking a look in a series of features the different operating systems that are going to be competing with Chrome OS in an effort to evaluate how Google stacks up against the competition.

Jolicloud is another operating system that is focused on the netbook market. Called an Internet OS on their official website, it’s based on the Linux kernel, and is backed by venture capital from Atomico Ventures and Mangrove Capital Partners. Right now Jolicloud is free, and I am not sure how they expect to make a profit when there are many others that are also offering free netbook operating systems, but who knows? They must have some sort of plan since they were able to obtain outside funding for the project. Since they plan on replacing regular software with web-based alternatives, perhaps they will be able to generate revenue that way.

The OS can be downloaded from the Jolicloud download page and there is an easy tool that can also be downloaded from their site that creates an image of the ISO onto a USB drive. The instructions are on the download page.

Although this can depend on hardware configuration, for me Jolicloud booted up pretty slow, slower than the current version of Chrome OS at 20 seconds. I noticed that there was no login to the OS, and the boot sequence just brought me to the main home for the OS.

The home screen for Jolicloud is all black and there are two side columns . On the left there are icons for both installed applications as well as preferences while the left is filled various shortcuts that are related to the file structure. The middle loads depending on which menu choice is toggled in the two side columns. I like the interface, and although the black background is starkly different from anything that I have seen before, I find it interesting. I was able to find options that change the color scheme to my liking, but even when I did so I realized that there is a deliberate theme that revolves around the color black for Jolicloud.

Just like in Chrome, quick configuration settings can be found on the upper right hand side. One thing I noticed right away was a dialog box asking me to “connect to the Jolicloud”. I clicked on the box and was taken to a screen to register. After validation with an email address I was taken into “the cloud” so to speak. Once you are connected there is a small Jolicloud logo that stays in the upper right configuration area to signify that you are logged in.

There was software already installed on startup, and instead of Jolicloud having its own browser Firefox was one of the applications that was on my home screen. There are other pre-installed apps such as Pidgin, which allows you to connect to several different IM services was well as Transmission BitTorrent Client.

In the Jolicloud interface you are able to download applications and there is a tab for social networking functions. In the application area, I found that there were quite a few options, more than I expected. I was even able to download and install the Chrome browser, which was a quick process. The different types of applications included games, music management and photo editing tools. Even the suite of Google Applications were available to install and use on Jolicloud.

Switching between tasks in Jolicloud is done in the upper left hand corner. There are icons that are docked in this area, and it is easy to get back to the home screen as there is a blue house icon that is pinned to the very upper right of the screen. You can also use the tried and true Alt+Tab as well. Although Jolicloud is in beta, it feels really polished, and it almost seems like something that one who is fed up with using Windows XP on their netbook may want to consider using.

The main focus for Jolicloud is, of course, on the cloud. But this can be a bit confusing for users with the “connect to Jolicloud” dialog that pops up at initial start up. Even so, you really only have to be logged in to Jolicloud if you want to download new applications or use their special social networking software.

Just because Jolicloud is focused on cloud computing doesn’t mean that you necessarily have to be connected to the internet to use the OS. You would be able to listen to music, view pictures or watch movies that are downloaded to the machine. Installed applications that don’t require the internet could also be used.  The file explorer functions that are located on the right hand column of the home screen makes clear that users will be able to have some functionality with this operating system even if users do not have network connectivity.

Although Jolicloud has only been in development since late 2008 , it seems like there is something good going on here. We’ll see if these folks are able to get this operating system into some netbooks in the near future.

Although it seems counterintuitive, the ability to use a netbook while not connected to the internet would be a good feature, since the way Chrome OS is suppose to be used as we understand it right now it is just a paperweight without the internet. Jolicloud tries this with their cloud portion of the OS sectioned off into a separate login. However, while I understand what they are trying to achieve with this concept, it would be easier (and more secure) to just have a machine login that is cached.

Pros: Finished feel, ability to change browsers, good choice of applications.

Cons: Jolicloud concept may be confusing to new users,  no machine login, slow boot time.