JOLICLOUD Linux OS review
We have seen plethora of Linux variants based on Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch and so on. The people behind JOLICLOUD, a Linux OS say that we, the netbook owners will soon be ‘Jolicloud-ed’. But, is being Joliclouded beneficial at all? Let’s see how is the new Jolicloud OS from a viewpoint of a die-hard Linux user.
Installation
Although the Jolicloud does support installation from USB drive, the utility that they offered just did not work for me. I ended up using my trusty Unetbootin utility which I always use for creating bootable flash USB drives to install Ubuntu and Ubuntu NBR.
How was the installation experience? Typical Ubuntu-ish. If you know how to install Ubuntu, then you will have no problems in installing it as everything is exactly the same.
Interface
Here is a quote from Jolicloud’s website,
“We have designed a simple and elegant interface to let you access as fast as possible your favorite applications and services.”
Well, I simply do not get it. The interface is 100% Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix interface with a slight change in colors here and there. Nothing radical about it.
note: click on any image to see its bigger version (applies for all images used in the review)
Looks familiar?
Yes, that's Ubuntu's Netbook Remix Edition 9.10 version
Second, the only major difference that we observed between the Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix Edition and this is introduction of a HTML5 based appstore made by Jolicloud. Sure, it does look very cool, but it does NOT provides anything extra over the Ubuntu’s easy-to-use and redesigned “Software Center”.
It also keeps track of when you installed what
Also, many of the so-called apps are mere shortcuts to sites. For example: The Facebook app is basically a shortcut to facebook.com. No extra functionality. Pity, they are not even widgets that tell you about the facebook status. Just mere shortcuts.
What is so great about Jolicloud then?
If you are an Ubuntu user, you won’t find anything new for sure. One thing, however, which may be beneficial to the new Linux users is that unlike Vanilla Linux distributions where do not get the flash plugin; MP3 and other plugins installed, Jolicloud comes with everything loaded.
For example: DVD support is there out of the box. Usually, in Ubuntu, you will be asked to download the drivers and so on, but this is not the case with the Jolicloud. Everything works like a charm. Even youtube worked out of the box
But then, loading these plugins is not much difficult in a Linux OS like Ubuntu. Just go to the Ubuntu’s Software Center and install “Ubuntu restricted extras”. You will get everything working in 5 mins or less, including Youtube
Bottom Line
The only core difference that one would notice is that instead of Ubuntu logo, you now get a Jolicloud’s cloud logo. If you are extremely noob or new to Linux, then you may consider Jolicloud as it comes bundled with all the basic usual codecs that you will need to play your local media files, but that can be easily added to the Ubuntu too as mentioned earlier in the review. I do not see a single reason why would anybody want this over Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix edition
Read Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala review
(+) Good media support out-of-box
(+) Youtube works out-of-box
(-) No support for office files out-of-box
(-) No compiz installed = No fancy animations
(-) No office app built-in
(-) I do not see the need to replace Ubuntu’s excellent Software center with their own propitiatory app just to make it brand differently from Ubuntu
(-) Costs $$. Ubuntu is free. Update – It has now been learnt that Jolicloud is also free
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BTW, I used Aspire D250 in the review. Jolicloud did not show my device on the list, so I chose D150
well, on my eee 900 jolicloud is the only os that does the jobb well. everything work out of the box. i dont like the nbr interface so i just remove it. suspend and hibrenate works like a charm in jolicloud unlike in ubuntu nbr.
i totaly disagree with you on this topic.
jolicloud ftw.
Have you used Ubuntu 9.10 NBR? In NBR too, everything works fine.
i have tryed it, and it dont work for me. i guess i could make it work, but why bother when i can just use jolicloud and everything work.
I would recommend everyone to use Linux for better safety.
At least while you use credit cards for shopping.
That’s why I use ubuntu all the time :)
This is a review. I’ve use NBR for a short time and it was ok. I went back to Ubuntu full install. But as a reviewer, what about boot up speeds, install foot print, memory usage, etc. I pretty much got a biased opinion that its the same as NBR so use that as the only core difference is the logo. So this is not a review but an opinion “Why I like MBR over Jolicloud”.
Boot speed is same as Ubuntu as there is not much difference between the two.
The only difference that I see between Jolicloud and Ubuntu NBR are:
1) not using Ubuntu’s software center for managing apps
2) using an app based on HTML and CSS (according to Jolicloud) to manage apps
3) inclusion of basic audio and video codecs
4) not including any office app, although can be installed via ‘my jolicloud’
5) ..no other difference that comes to my mind right now
Hello Kamal, this is a bit of an unfair statement to jolicloud. We have an out of the box platform that has much more than just a rebranding. All the kernel and the platform has been optimized for netbook, that is not the case of others. We focus on out of the box and have things updated faster than the usual.
UNR is temporary and we have some nice UI coming in soon that you didn’t mentioned in your article.
have a look here to see what differentiate us from other players
http://wiki.jolicloud.com/jolicloud-alpha-improvements
best
TK
Thanks for responding Tariq. I’ve been using Ubuntu NBR since its launch and before that too, I’ve using Ubuntu 24/7 and I think that Ubuntu 9.10 Netbook Edition is already pretty nicely optimized for the netbooks. It even ran flawlessly on a 2 year old netbook, ASUS EEE 701 and everything worked out of box on every netbook that I’ve tried so far. See this: http://gadgetmix.com/index/ubuntu-9-10-netbook-remix-on-asus-eee-701/
That said, I’m 100% sure that users that are new to Linux world will love Jolicloud
In the last 2 days I have loaded Easy Peasy and UNR 9.1 on my Dell Mini 9, and I am going back to Jolicloud. Why?
On Jolicloud, wireless works “out of the box”. Easy Peasy 1.5 requires hand loading replacement network drivers. UNR 9.1 wireless setup was a pain.
The S.M.A.R.T. disk error reporting system in UNR 9.1 generates many “your disk is failing” errors which I have seen no where else.
I am I Linux/Unix user, not a programmer, and the Jolicloud experience rivals the Mac OS X experience.
Jolicloud is for users that want a fast, virus resistant operating system for life on the internet.
[...] With Jolicloud you’d have your netbook running Jolicloud and you sync it with your Jolicloud homebase. So that implies you’ve got your entired set up somewhere else. Somewhere in the cloud perhaps, hence the name? I don’t have any way to test it yet though but it looks interesting. gadgetmix.com has a review of Jolicloud. [...]
I have been using linux exclusively except for professional Windows environments for well over a decade. I have used many distros such as Slackware linux 3.0 on diskette, Corel Linux, TurboLinux bundled with PowerDVD, Gentoo, Fedora, CentOS, SuSE, Debian, Ubuntu, Puppylinux, and now “Jolicloud.”
Jolicloud is by far the best linux distribution I have used. I click install and the app installs. Useful apps are fed into the install stream. I can sync my various gadgets easily. Jolicloud supports exactly the type of Jonney Shih-style computer which I use. I have owned many small/lightweight computers beginning with the Toshiba Libretto. The hardware has never been supported right and Jolicloud supports the most critical components of modern Atom-based machines with no effort on my part.
If the reviewer doesn’t understand the convenience of having obvious icons for major web applications, they have not been making good enough use of web applications. Google chrome OS is little but an efficient way to access web apps. Jolicloud does this while incorporating all of the useful things in Ubuntu. It is the best of both worlds.
With Jolicloud, I know I will always be running the latest kernel tested to support my architecture. My information will always be backed up as everything is in the cloud somehow whether residing in a web application or dropbox.
Cloud computing is the present and the future. This distro represents a major step in effective client models for cloud computing.
I have tried to install Jolicloud on two netbooks, and the install does not go any further than telling me to look at the error log, which reads:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “jexpress.py”, line 31, in
File “wubi\application.pyc”, line 36, in __init__
s
File “wubi\frontends\qt\frontend.pyc”, line 29, in __init__
File “wubi\frontends\qt\frontend.pyc”, line 351, in _get_installation_model
File “wubi\frontends\qt\frontend.pyc”, line 427, in _get_default_language
AttributeError: ‘QtFrontend’ object has no attribute ‘info’
Which netbook are you using?
(-) Costs $$. Ubuntu is free
Jolicloud is as free as the air around you. I don’t know where you got your info from.
Pretty off review. I’ve installed XP, Win 7, Debian, Ubuntu Studio, easypeasy and NBR and had issues with them all. On my EEEpc 900ha NBR was often sluggish and after the last update it wouldn’t boot properly. I enjoy messing around with Linux but my netbook is a convenience item that allows me to stay connected and work more efficiently. So far Jolicliud is solid dependable and works when I need it. So what if it looks like NBR? Ubuntu attempts to build off of Debian’s efforts. Looking at the other OS reviews here I’m lost as to why the hate on for a decent OS…Also Jolicloud is still pre-beta and working tighter IMHO then NBR. Weak.
I agree with you Kamal. It is just an OVER-advertised Ubuntu Clone. Techcrunch has been overly advertising it from months. Leeenux which too got good coverage on GadgetMix is also similar to this. Then why techcrunch and engadget did not cover it? Talk about being biased!
Keep up the good work. Don’t listen to these parasites. Ubuntu Netbook edition works well and if I ever feel the need of Eee specific OS, I will go for the eeebuntu or Leeenux
Having a contrary opinion hardly makes one a parasite. And again I wouldn’t touch Ubuntu for years as I thought it was ripping off Debian. Jolicloud is solid and a great choice for people who don’t want to fiddle with Linux/Ubuntu. I have had issues with NBR. That said I’ll most likely re-install Ubuntu NBR as I use my netbook for more then Facebook etc. Plus I am already missing pure data when I’m on the road and I’m not sure insalling it on Jolicloud would work.
As of this post date, I believe that Jolicloud is just another Ubuntu clone. Don’t get me wrong, I like Ubuntu, and Ubuntu clones, but visually and functionally, my experience with Jolicould is identical to Easy Peasy.
Many of the “Features” that are listed on the Jolicould site, are basic features that come with Ubuntu modules, available for install through the Synaptic Package Manager.
I did not notice any speed or out-of-the-box improvements, over Easy Peasy on my EeePC 901.
So in conclusion, noobs may like Jolicloud.
But as for a “die-hard Linux user”, Jolicould is nothing special.
Jordan – Yay, finally someone got the point ;)
What’s the point, exactly?
NBR is great. Jolicloud is like NBR but with better out-of-the-box functionality, web apps that save screen space on tiny netbook monitors, quick installation of great recommended apps, and a ridiculously long list of hardware compatibility. Therefore Jolicloud is garbage.
I don’t see the logic. Much of Open Source is about building a better product by standing on the shoulders of giants. NBR does it. Everyone does it.
For some, Linux is a hobby. Making it work is part of the fun. Others like things that work as soon as you boot it. Call us ‘noobs’ but maybe we just have better things to do than tinker for hours.
For me, JoliCloud just works: works easily by itself, works beautifully with Windows 7, works quickly and easily.
More importantly, I cannot say that about other choices. Sure Ubuntu has WUBI but Windows 7 doesn’t play nice with it AND Ubuntu in this mode is slow and awkward.
Other forms of Linux? On the several times I tried, I ended up hosing Windows and 3 times of such was enough. No more.
Bottom-line: When I first tried it I didn’t need another major operating system because I have Win 7 and it is VERY nice. I started using JoliCloud because I wanted an alternative to keep me safe on the web, without all of the crap that is needed with windows. JoliCloud does this. Lately, though, I’ve been using it more and more for other things as well; to the point where — except for a few major things — JoliCloud is my main OS.
Is it perfect? Nope. I miss the ability to add stuff (easily) that JoliCloud doesn’t include. That’s probably the only thing that’s keeping me from using this full time.