Andrew Currie on Posterous

Harsh, and as you said yourself, your experience wasn't the best at installation or removal, possibly due to instructions not from the app itself. You fail to mention that is is ALPHA software, and where i agree this is an installation bolt on to UNR right now, it has potential, and using this method of making webpages work/look like they are desktop apps is a good idea if you are indeed new to an OS..

With all that said, i do wish they would do more to customize the interface rather than rehashing the unr..

It is a bit hard to bash free software, and alpha software at that as you say, but the Linux world needs a critical eye too, I think...

P.S. Did you get the notifications to work in Jolicloud?

I agree the web apps are cheesey when compared to a well-configured Firefox. I think the value is in the one-click installs of more genuine apps - like Adobe AIR, Skype, etc. The more they add, the more they'll be like Linspire/Lindows/Freespire's one-click install model.

This is an unfair an improper test. What ever are your thoughts on the product and i respect them, you are complaining about a product you installed in a desktop (its optimized for netbooks) from an other system that is incompatible with ours.

I am very surprised that the wifi would not work on a 901. Adam, who currently wrote the array kernel is now our lead Os developer and he has spent lots of time to make this Os the fastest available on netbooks. The 901 has been our test machine from start.

We have worked hard to create a nice experience from the boot, we have dramatically improved performances , compatilbity (the widest one on the market) and kernel optimizations to create an awsome out of the box experience.

For now our focus is on stability and compatilbitly, we will add more social features in the future.

I would definitly suggest that you do a clean install with our latest version. You will experience the os as we designed it. Who knows you may end up using it as your main netbook OS.

Hi Tariq, thanks for your comment. Some clarifications follow...

"You are complaining about a product you installed in a desktop (its optimized for netbooks)..."

??

Both this installation and the proper Jolicloud distro were tested on an EeePC 901.

"I am very surprised that the wifi would not work on a 901."

Sorry if this wasn't made clear, but what didn't work for me with the Jolicloud OS wasn't the WiFi, but specifically a *WPA-encrypted connection* to my home WiFi network.

I didn't know that Jolicloud used the Array.org kernel -- this is very strange, considering that I loaded that very same kernel into my current install of Linux Mint, and it works great with that very same WPA-encrypted network.

As for further testing of Jolicloud, I'll definitely be watching for further developments...

OK, hold on one minute. There's too much FUD going around here, let me set something straight regarding your kernel/jolicloud/easy peasy installation.

First, please validate WHICH kernel you were using for your WPA tests. If you had installed jolicloud overtop of easy peasy, that is purely the UI layer. If you had installed the full jolicloud OS, that would include my jolicloud kernel (direct descendant of the array.org kernel.)

Second, your WPA encryption was likely failing because of a known issue in 2.6.30 and earlier related to rt2860sta not being able to connect to some WPA/WPA2 encryption. This is an issue which I submitted as a patch to the upstream kernel, and was included as of 2.6.31-rc8.

Easy Peasy started creating their own kernel for their 1.5 release candidate. To my knowledge this version did not contain my patch from upstream linux.

Type 'uname -r', if it ends in '-jolicloud', it is my jolicloud kernel and should work with WPA on the 901. If it ends in '-netbook', or '-eeepc', it is my array.org kernel and should also work. If it is anything else, that is your problem.

Adam, thanks for your comment. Please understand that my WiFi issues with Jolicloud are in no way meant to point the finger of blame at you. I'm a big fan of your work, as this post will attest:

http://post.ly/6YsL

Second, after further testing, I can confirm that WPA encryption *does indeed work* with "jolicloud-robby-alpha2c-live", the file name of the .iso I downloaded. In fact, I'm writing this comment from within that very same OS!

Third, I can now see that the proper Jolicloud Dashboard has more than just web apps, and is perhaps meant to replace the traditional software repositories of Ubuntu?

This is where I get confused -- I know my way around the Ubuntu Netbook Remix and as a user have certain expectations of it. And while Jolicloud sprinkles a bunch of icons across my UNR tabs, everything I need is already present in the Dashboard, is it not?

It seems to me that the Jolicloud interface and UNR are incongruous -- i.e. the presence of UNR is not really necessary.

What do you think?

Hmmm, did not learn a lot with your review, Adam. Ok, you do not like Jolicloud ? Fine! You prefer Easy Peasy? Fine. But, for a reader that is not much.
I am not geek, I am not a Linux user and if I compare Joli to XP, well I get something interesting to wait for. Oh, yes, 96% of netbooks are sold with XP.

Um, my name's Andrew...

And I actually *don't* prefer Easy Peasy -- v1.1 was fantastic but the latest 1.5 is very buggy. Currently my EeePC 901 is running Linux Mint with Adam McDaniel's (is this what got you confused?) Array.org kernel.

There are lots of Ubuntu-based netbook distros out there for you to try -- here's but a small sample: http://post.ly/61cL

And about the netbooks with XP, what's your point, exactly?

Great post Andrew. I had a laugh when I read
"If bookmarking a site in your web browser sounds like rocket science to you then you're probably the perfect candidate for Jolicloud, which dumps a bunch of shortcuts for social networking sites and such onto your netbook screen."

Anyhow, I find it exciting to see new ways of installing apps. And their way of making AIR, Prism and native apps install the same way is nice. But as you said: I honestly can't see what the big deal is about this new Jolicloud distro. I'm glad I was able to test it in easypeasy.

You say you find the easypeasy 1.5 release "very buggy". Can you reply with a list of the bugs, and I will have them fixed :) We're preparing a 1.5.1 release.

Hi Jon,

Wow, the stars are coming out to comment! 8-)
Okay, my issues with EP 1.5 are, in order:

1. The mouse wheel weirdness on the UNR desktop.
2. The broken repositories.
3. Missing themes for the "appearance" setting -- can't offhand remember what it was, sorry.

It just seems like there's too many things that need tweaking to get EP working out of the box, whereas 1.1 worked brilliantly.

Is there maybe another update on the way?

I promise to have the first and second bug fixed in the bug fix release easypeasy 1.5.1. Will try to get it ready asap.

We're trying to keep easypeas small whil shipping all you need, but no more. That's why there's missing themes.

Actually it was a component within a specific theme if I remember correctly... I want to say "gnome-brave", an element of the Easy Peasy theme -- does that make sense?

Thanks Andrew, I'll check that out

Those big Jolicloud icons look perfect for my fat fingers and touchscreen. So, great that they are using an advertising model to support the project. Am not sure what the Easy Peasy business model is going to be.

I installed Jolicloud last week as a dual boot on my wife's Asus 1000HE netbook. I was shopping for a lean and mean linux OS for when she is simply web-browsing and emailing as Windows gets bogged down with spyware and adware over time. Then you have to add anti-spyware/adware/virus to further bog it down. I could not get Moblin or Easy Peasy to install, but Jolicloud's exe installer worked flawlessly for me. So far, Jolicoud fits the bill for what I was looking for. It has detected all my settings (Wi-fi, etc) and even the 2-finger touch pad scroll. It's relatively fast, too. Suggestions for the future: More apps. Having dual boot will give me access to limitless programs. I'd like to see more of the wonderful linux apps out there able to be incorporated into this system. I'd also like to see less password requests and even a way to bypass that and typing in the username at startup. There's nothing on this netbook that needs to be protected like Fort Knox.