Jolicloud 1.0 micro-review!

This is a micro-review of Jolicloud 1.0, a Linux distro based on Ubuntu 9.04 that emphasizes ‘in-the-cloud’ features. Yes, even the Application launcher and Application store is running on a Chromium-based browser.

Because this is a micro-review, this review won’t be divided into segments as usual. So instead I’ll just ramble on and on about this ‘new’ OS, Jolicloud. Makes sense?

So, about Jolicloud itself: first, it is not a netbook-only OS, I think. It is a ‘cloud-based’ OS. It’s different from Web Desktops through. Jolicloud can run native Linux applications, and provides its own ‘browser’, so to speak. It runs on multiple devices, stores data, configuration, and applications on Jolicloud’s server, and low on resource usage. It’s perfect for a pendrive OS.

Installation process is relatively painless. I downloaded the express install version of the installer because I have Windows XP installed on my Netbook. It’s like Wubi, basically.

Startup speed is fantastic, faster than even Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04. I was worried that Jolicloud needs constant or frequent access to the internet, but Jolicloud has offline mode, too. Even with slow connections (256Kbps downstream, 128Kbps upstream) syncing (which happens seamlessly, in the background) is fast.

The application manager is great, and the software repository has a lot of softwares already, including Boxee. Installation is quick, but you can’t choose the location of the software repository without installing Ubuntu Tweak first.

One of the neat thing of this OS is that you can use it with a Chromium-based browser from other OS by logging in with your account @Jolicloud.com.

Battery life is longer than Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 by about 15%, which is pretty significant. Also, the CPU frequency scaling seems working (it didn’t work on Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04), which greatly reduces the system general temperature and increases battery life.

It still has the classic problems of Linux through, that is, it slows down to the point of non-responsiveness when there is a lot of disk swapping or access going on, but thankfully, a fix is in the works.

I didn’t have a problem with hardware at all. Actually, when you first boot the OS after the installing process, it asks you for the make and model of your netbook, so it can autoconfigure itself from the data from the Jolicloud database.

Overall, this is a great start for a 1.0 version, and with Wine in the default install, this is already better than variants of Linux being shipped with a lot of netbooks in the market now.

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