Henk van de Goor's Bloggers@large

As an Asus Eee Pc 900 netbook user (the 900 model that came with 20gb), I use a homemade, slimmed and trimmed down Windows XP Professional version as my main OS. I installed over the dorky Linux version that came with my Eee PC. I prefer XP because I can get all the apps that I need for it, but still I think it’s too bloated. Thats why I also installed EeeBuntu (EB for short) on a 8gb SD-card as an alternative. It’s real easy to do and it works – so far – like a charm. But Eeebuntu is based on Ubuntu 9.04 and we already are at 9.10. Until EB 4.0 is coming out, I experimented with Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but that had way too many little glitches. Mainly my mousepad not working correctly and very poor battery performance i.e. my battery time was almost cut in half. Eeebuntu is doing a little better as it comes with a tool that helps with battery life, but still it’s not as good as XP. So, this weekend I tried the Kubuntu Netbook Edition 9.10, but it performed like crap and the interface just sucks.

But here enters Jolicloud. Jolicloud is what I consider a competitor for Google Chrome OS. It’s a lightweight, Linux based operating system (Debian/Ubuntu) that is aimed primarily at netbooks. Just like Google Chrome OS. It is currently in it’s beta phase, but so far it looks promising. The interface is fully modeled after the Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which isn’t bad to start with, but leaves a lot to be desired for more seasoned users that (also) want a regular desktop.

The idea, just as with Google Chrome OS, is, that users store a lot of there work online on the servers of Google. It’s no surprise then that Jolicloud works mostly with Google apps. But you can install many other apps as well, including Skype.

At the moment I am trying to install it on a 8gb USB stick so I can run it from there, just like I did with some other Linux alternatives, but it seems that the version of Grub that comes with the latest version doesn’t like this, so my first attempt ended in a Grub error.I am, however, able to run it from a USB stick without installation. This is off course not a persistent install (i.e. I loose my settings with every reboot).

So far it looks good, responds snappy – as far as my 900Mhz Intel can be called snappy – and just works. I just need to figure out if I can get it working (persistent) from a USB stick (or maybe SD-card). That might require an email to their support department, but I guess it’s worth it.

Anyway: I will keep testing this puppy a bit more and will report back here on my findings.