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Jolicloud pre-beta now ready for download, and I love it
Today, the Jolicloud pre-beta has been released and it's ready for the general public to install on their Windows netbooks.
Jolicloud's Wubi-derived installer make the process dead-simple. Download the 600Mb .exe [or the torrent] from their website, launch it, and make your selections. Within a few moments you're system can dual-boot into Jolicloud or Windows.
While I suppose it's technically not fair to compare Jolicloud and Chrome OS right now since Chrome is so early in the alpha stage, I'm going to anyway. Right now - and for the near future - Jolicloud is the winner in my mind because it supports both native and web-based applications equally well.
"Sure, but Jolicloud uses Firefox and Firefox is slooooooooooow!" you say? Fine, go grab the Google Chrome beta for Linux and install the 32-bit .deb on Jolicloud. There. You've got a nice, fast, webkit-based browser - just click in from your internet apps tab.
And you're not giving up the speedy boot time, either. Check out the video, where you'll see the OS boot on an Asus Eee PC in less than 15 seconds. That's very competitive.
If you hadn't guessed from my screenshot, I'm busily installing games on my Acer Aspire One at the moment. Apart from the Jolicloud directory, you've also got terminal access to apt-get for installing anything available from the Ubuntu repositories (like Wormux and FreeCol, for example). I'm only two days in on Jolicloud, but I'm really enjoying the experience so far.
It's well worth trying out, so go grab the pre-beta now - and share your impressions in the comments!
Comments
27
Subscribe to commentsRyanDec 10th 2009 9:59PM
Looks nice. Is there a way to test this out LiveCD style?
Martin FocazioDec 11th 2009 11:03AM
Wait a minute. This isn't new at all.
This is the exact same interface as EasyPeasy for netbooks running Ubuntu. I've been running EasyPeasy on a Asus eeePC for several months now.
Look at the screen shots here:
http://www.geteasypeasy.com/
It's identical.
okmilkDec 17th 2009 11:28AM
Wrong. One is blue, and the other one is brown.
This and Easy Peasy are built from UNR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Netbook_Remix
BrianDec 16th 2009 11:13PM
I have it on my Acer Aspire One and it's AWESOME! I mean... totally a toy OS. I couldn't leave Windows completely, but this is the easiest linux I've seen. By far. I mean... almost iPhone easy. I could put this on a computer and give it to my parents with no qualms.
TomDec 31st 2009 3:22PM
Didn't really play with the alpha when I got the invite, after learning more about it I thought it was a little silly - trying to make your OS "social" and I still do. I really don't care what other people are installing. That's extremely worthless information.
However, if Jolicloud is a small and fast loading, fast performing distro variant of Ubuntu, that's great! I would absolutely use it if it's optimized for speed.
Funny enough, I do develop for the web on my netbook. It's not just for music, video, web, and e-mail. The small screen isn't so bad, I mean I'm used to it and on the HP Mini 1000, the keyboard is ample size for typing. I use Crunchbang linux, which is a slim Ubuntu distro. GREAT battery life with the distro. Which I shouldn't say is so great with the HP Mini, that's the one downside of it. So I really appreciate anything to give the HP Mini more life short of an awkward battery that's oozing with radiation.
That said. I can't really use Chrome OS right? I mean I need to be able to install specific software. SVN, gEdit, etc. Jolicloud lets me do that? Runs fast? PERFECT.
However, I'd also take another look at Moblin. The alpha of Moblin didn't work so well on my HP Mini. However it's at "2.1 final" now...And...It's supposed to boot EXTREMELY fast. They were aiming for 2 seconds. That's faster than Chrome OS. Are they there yet? I don't know...
But I would like to see a review on Moblin here too.
SonnyjimbaDec 31st 2009 5:29PM
Typing from jolicloud on a Lenovo Ideapad s10-2, and I love it, it's the first linux distro i've used and it's great.
It is in pre-beta though, and the UNR UI is soon going to be changed to a new HTML5 one, along with new features.
JayFeb 24th 2010 3:46PM
I've been playing with Jolicloud for a few months now. Love it! Had a couple of issues with it running on my MSI U120 when it first came out by invitation but since the pre-beta release...near perfect! It just works...all of it! Fast, easy, simple. The installation interface is a dream. New apps seem to appear and it lets you try out apps you've never even heard of...don't like the new app? No sweat, just click uninstall! Sweet!
With the new Express installer...you gotta try it! Installs in a few minutes right with windows and if you decide you don't want it, just go to the control panel in windows and uninstall through the add/remove programs! How easy is that? www.Jolicloud.com and click the big yellow/orange button...it doesn't get much easier!
Why wait for Google OS...and another year's worth of hype?