Jolicloud: the OS your netbook has been screaming for
By Darren Murph 
posted Jan 25th 2009 3:53AM
posted Jan 25th 2009 3:53AM
[Via Engadget German]
posted Jan 25th 2009 3:53AM
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So, basically, you're saying most Netbooks don't fulfill any of your needs. Nothing wrong with that.
Linux has the most potential to create an optimized OS + UI for netbooks (eg. ubuntu eee). Problem is, outside the nice icons, the linux community doesn't seem to be interested in polishing the rest of the OS, especially configurations (pointing back to ubuntu eee, where many things still requires editing config files or doing command lines), which are far from user friendly.
I tried couple linux distros on my eeepc, and in the end, I'm back to XP because I want to actually use the device, not having to tinker around and search for some command line fix for some basic configuration issues, or having to figure out how to download the correct updates from certain repositories.
Right on the money!! XP is lean enough to run netbooks, no need to complicate your life with figuring out which is the best distros to run on your netbooks.
You need "command line" for "basic configuration fixes" on a eeebuntu (which is a out-of-the-box-totally-optimised-and-fully-pre-configured-distro specially for the EEEpc) ?
But you can install XP and all the drivers and so on ? yeah right....
By the way editing a config file means opening a text file on notepad, not that complicated.
That's the most efficient and easy way to configure most stuff as long as the options are clearly explained via notes and help.
And don't tell me they are not in eeebuntu.
That's simply words from someone who seemingly never touched any netbook variation of Linuses, which are typically perfectly optimized for the machine they are intended to run on. Admittedly, things get a tiny bit more complex if you want to put a distribution that's not optimized for the machine. But in such a case, you're asking to be put in the "tinkerer" category: assume it! Tinkering only in GUI is reserved for Mac users (don't feed my troll!); Windows and Linux both require extensive knowledge to do it. Anyway, if you don't have such knowledge, Linux distros communities are vast and willing to help you out.
Config in Linux should be better explained and probably put under a nice GUI, translated to each user's language (typically not the case in config text files). I'm a power user, but not a tinkerer in itself: if it works as I want, why change it?
On the other hand, about the OS itself, "always connected in 3G" is pure BS in some places: when riding the subway, you likely don't have 3G network. When you're in range, 3G subscribtion fee is typically another $30 to $60 a month, for a ridiculous few _*hundred*_ megs of data transfer. There's no way I would try to do a heavy OS update that can weight tens of megs without anxiously keeping an eye on the download meter. And that's on top of a normal, budget, $40 cell phone plan. 3G will not take off as a netbook primary link unless large discounts are made. 500MB should be priced accordingly to applications weight: $10 at most in a plan. Watching Yout[]be intensively (for example, no ad intended here) can easily consume tens of gigs a month, and loading those pages overloaded with flash ads about 8 gigs.
Plus, some netbooks still don't have the option of a bigger battery, and the default 2.5 to 3 hours forces oneself to bring the charger, defeating the intended purpose of day-long mobility.
Some of the comments here seem to find that a $500 netbook must be underpowered. It is...especially considering that first-price laptops hover around this price (admittedly, very cheaply made) have double power processors and at least a gig of RAM, often wully-equipped with DVD-burner (an option around $40 for a netbook, interface and drive included) and a more comfortable screen. Mobility comes at a premium, and I bet netbooks priced the same as regular laptops are a very profitable market. My not-at-all teksavvy father wished he could have a very small "netbook" (he simply called it "miniature laptop") two years ago (before the crave) that would be sufficient to do emails, view documents and search the net (yes, light multitasking!) while on the road, but all for $200CDN or less. He was in a deception when I told him that it didn't exist yet, but even smaller and incomplete alternatives existed (smartphones).
Clearly, manufacturers aren't willing to put an honest price on these standardized machines (the Atom platform is sold as a bundle by Intel), as the cheapest netbook available (An Asus EEEPC "surf" with 2Gigs storage, I guess) still goes over $300CDN and is severely limited in its upgrade options (My father is using Ubuntu as his main OS, on my advice when I grew tired of Win slowing with each update and requiring frequent maintenance and pirated softwares).
I still hope that AMD and Motorola will be able to make compatible and competitively priced alternatives to Intel's platform, bringing prices down. In the meantime, I will stay with the most comfortable, sturdy, mobile and powerful machine I could find, MacBook.
I'll say this much: just because Asus are known for being assholes about not opening up their specs to the linux community, and in turn, preventing that community from building smooth, clean drivers and support systems, doesn't mean linux sucks. It means that Asus are a bunch assholes when it comes to supporting the linux community.
Sadly, the end result is still that the eee, especially the 900 series, is a tricky little guy for getting your own linux distro running. But it's not because of Linux as much as it is because of the manufacturer.
For more classic examples of this, look into the history of linux support for Aetheros wireless chipsets.
Pika, you are SO RIGHT! I seriously tried *buntu and even got a brand new laptop for it. Within a month I gave up on it as being ONLY for Geeks. And that's FINE; no problem. Only I'm *not* that geeky. My experience lives at http://www.sticksite.com/linux/
-or you could spring for a screwdriver and a stick of RAM and use a "big boy" OS.
looks like Tariq and that iFrame guy have been comparing notes, or sleeping together
its see beauty...
http://notebooksplanet.com/en/
I smell your stinking spam
I'm very much interested.
I, however, am NOT interested. On a tiny screen with a cruddy trackpad (I LOVE my eee701 but it's not the greatest trackpad), I'd far rather use Launchy and/or hotkeys to launch apps and the less busy crap I have on my desktop, the better.
This is not bad but if you're going for this sorta look-feel, check out Canonical's ubuntu-netbook remix.
Am I the only one that thinks this looks ugly? I just got a MSI Wind rebadge at Circuit City for $315, and the first think I did was reformat it and throw Windows 7 on it and I couldn't be happier. It runs just as fast as any of my other computers for the tasks i need it to do, (Email, Word Processing, Internet, Spreadsheets) and the os looks great on the small screen. Not to mention that Areo runs fine on it and I am only using 56% of my memory ans 36% processor with Firefox, Thunderbird, and Word 07 running. Pair that with the 25 second boot up time and I am doing just fine.
That's hot; a student! I'm sure they partially copied some org. but organizations copy others. Congrats; windows needs a huge makeover but has never happened.
While it does look similar to Ubuntu NBR, I like the addition of an email/facebook message notifier and web/computer search bar at the top. It has a familiar web feel to it that way.
Looks interesting. I'd like to throw it on my AAO to try it out.
I call shenanigans on this whole Jolicloud thing. Any good FOSS or FOSS-type project would have some sort of collaborative project page (example: sf.net) and a mailing list. All I can see from the "read" link is some artse-fartse home page with zero content.
I'm guessing this is going to be some overpriced netbook distro with all sorts of GPL violations that won't ever make it off the ground. It reminds me of CherryOS.
Didn't we have this on the iPhone?
I dont know but this OS reminds me of boxee.
Attractive but far from original.
It looks like Phoenix's HyperSpace solution.
OS lite is all I ask.
Get me onto the web, let me do a little text editing with some sizeable files and I'm good.
I'll keep my gaming PC separate. On my Netbook I just want a browser for on the toilet...er, I mean couch.
As much as I was hoping to see Linux flourish on the Netbook, most people don't want to learn anything new. As such, Windows XP has become the standard OS for netbooks, and I can guarantee that Windows 7 will replace XP on the Netbook. Unfortunately, most people who buy a netbook just want a really small laptop.
Sure it would have been much better for the Linux community as a whole to push just one distribution for netbooks, but anybody who's been a part of the Linux community knows that there is no such thing as consensus in the Linux community.
The Linux community also needs some great marketing. Unfortunately, most people think that Linux is for geeks, which is a shame since there are some really great distributions that are very easy to use. I do think that the Linux distributions could use a better looking desktop, I've used Gnome, KDE, and XFCE, and I find all three to look really old.
This one does look good, unfortunately I don't think it will go anywhere.
This is the real deal guys. Tariq showed me his new OS during CES and this thing rocks. I think this will go live at WEF in Davos next week.