Review Jolicloud

2 months ago it became known that Google should release its Web OS. I really liked the description, like the idea itself, and wanted to try something like that now. After some time, I found references to Jolicloud, looked at the screenshots, read the project site, and eventually left them my email for an invitation.
Initially, for some reason I thought that an invite was needed only for the download link. I went to the pirateboy, found the image, downloaded, booted. Before my eyes - almost the most common Ubuntu, only Netbook Remix. On the desktop, a shortcut: "Get Started". (Under the cut - a lot of uncompressed screenshots, traffic)

Have you seen the very first screenshot on Jolicloud? such a beautiful desktop with application icons? So this “Get Started” leads there. But without an invitation is impossible.
In the middle of August I was lucky, I received a letter "I've been Joliclouded". But the latest at that time version of JC, or rather the most interesting, the shell itself, I refused to start. And more than a month later, I decided to return, and completely deal with all this. No wonder they sent me an invite, and on a netbook I had to put things in order :)



So, the latest to date version of Jolicloud - Robby Alpha 2c, August. It is distributed in 600 MB ISO-image. Also, the developers took into account that there are no drives on netbooks (and the OS is oriented on them), and they wrote a small utility called Jolicloud USB Creator. This is for those lazy people like me who do not want to suffer with external drives and burn the image to disk. By the way, from under Windows 7 / Windows XP, I could not create a bootable USB flash drive, and in Kubunt - on the first attempt.
Reboot. From the first minutes you can see that Jolicloud is based on Ubuntu. Even the download is the same, only the logo is changed. I didn’t play with the Live CD, I just checked if MyJolicloud is working. Installation does not cause difficulties, because the installer is also exactly like in Ubunt. I skip the installation stage, anyway there is nothing interesting there.
')

First start

Rebooting after installation, I was greeted by GRUB with a choice of OS (yes, I also have seven). Entering JC, we see the usual Netbook Remix desktop, only less colorful:



Finally, “Get Started” works fine with me. Click. Immediately after entering the username and password for some reason I was asked for a model netbook. It would be nice if they asked not just like that, but to install the necessary drivers, and sharpen configs for this netbook. By the way, at the beginning I thought that the system itself recognized my device, but then it turned out that it was just the first on the list. So everything is simple, even insulting.

My jolicloud

Hooray, we are inside this beautiful shell called MyJolicloud. Before us - 4 main menus. Dashboard, App Directory, Settings, and, yet unavailable, Lab.
In the Dashboard there is an opportunity to observe the actions of your friends and view the history of their own actions. Under the actions means installing or removing software, updating the system, adding friends. You can also upgrade your system using the Dashboard. Updates are divided into 3 parts: Jolicloud Updates, System Updates, Application Updates.

App Directory

Screenshot App Directiry saw absolutely everyone who visited jolicloud.com. From the first time it seemed to me that this is the main desktop of this OS. But it was because of this that I wanted to try it. But in fact - the App Directory is a very beautiful semblance of a package manager. There applications can only be installed. To start you have to go back to the main desktop, the fact that the Netbook Remix. Fortunately, this is done by pressing just 1 button.
Programs, as always, are divided into groups such as Development, Games, Internet, etc. As I said, when you click on the icon, the application does not start. We just go into the description. By the way, along with the OS installation, for some reason, the Facebook application is also installed.





Alternate App Directory Type:


The games section:

Settings

The name 'Settings' for the current section is not very suitable. There are no settings. But then there you can change your profile, view and change the list of your computers running Jolicloud, find your followers. Well, as a bonus - there are displayed Latest Members, their profiles, and their history.



Search can search both in programs and among users. Sample for 'Music':



In addition to the App Directory, the familiar Synaptic is also available. However, for several days of use, I used it only once, to install python3.

findings

Jolicloud, in fact, is a regular Ubuntu Netbook Remix with a beautifully designed shell batch manager and social manners, like followers and the kind of friendly tape. Most applications - this is an ordinary link that opens in a separate window without any frames, which is very convenient on a netbook. Saving space is very noticeable, take for example Google Reader:



It was also mentioned in Wikipedia that the Jolicloud project, in the framework of venture financing, received $ 4.2 million. It’s not even beta yet, but I haven’t noticed anything interesting in it at the moment. Probably because after reading the official website of the project and several reviews, I expected a little more from it. And the competitor of the future GoogleOS (Chrome OS?) Can not be called. It does not feel that this system is focused on netbooks, and it is not clear why the developers call it the Internet OS. But on the other hand, if you ignore the download for 35 seconds, Jolicloud is very suitable for computers like Aspire One, Mininote and Eee. Everything works right out of the box, as quickly and easily as possible.