Finally got my turn to try out Jolicloud, a “cool new OS for your netbook“. I learned about it several weeks ago and it took quite a while for me to get a invite.

First off, I tried the live boot. I selected my native language etc. and while it was  booting, I stepped away for a few. Upon my return I glanced on the screen and much to my surprise, it seemed as if the netbook just loaded my regular system, Ubuntu Netbook Remix.

No – wait. It was the new OS, but with only subtle differences separating the initial state from its parent OS. A quick glance trough the installed applications revealed only “facebook” to be added initially – a shortcut to a prism application.

Ok, time to try out the jolicloud applications. When I logged into the application with my user name -  picked when I got the invite, I choose “MSI WIND 100″ as my notebook, as Medion Akoya e1210 was not on the list but afaik is just a re-brand of a WIND anyway.

The jolicloud application itself, as most of the applications it serves, is built upon Mozilla Prism. A “web OS” built upon the web itself – perfectly integrated in the social media system.
It synchronizes itself into your jolicloud profile – so couple that with a Dropbox and you have a notebook to carry around without having to think about the consequences of it being ( stolen or in any other way ) unrecoverable beyond losing a piece of hardware. No data or settings would be lost – or be easy to steal with some encryption.

One click is all it takes to install any application – native or web/prism. With my favorites like Google’s Picasa, Skype, Dropbox, Last.fm and Google Chrome already there – not to mention most of the biggest social media sites and web applications there as prism apps. Also there some Game and Education titles I have yet to see anywhere else. How to install the from the regular ubuntu stream – or adding more sources – is a mystery because no package manager is present. Besides that, system and application upgrades are fast – one click – operations.

Other changes might not be as apparent to the average user, but the kernel itself was – as I learned from one of the developers in #jolicloud – optimized for this specific use. Why this was needed and what this brings to the end user is – to me – unclear.

All in all, I can see a lot of this changes being up-streamed into Ubuntu Netbook Remix. The applications selection ( my personal favorite in jolicloud ) is something that could do Ubuntu (or Linux in general) a lot of good. Installing applications is easy in the Linux world but the hard part is actually finding a application to install. Did you know there are 5 excellent - insert appication type – to be installed on your system via the install system, but most actually just stick with the one that is already there and never even think there might be something out there that would suit them better ?

If you want to try it out yourself, you have to register for a invitation.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jolicloud Private Alpha Social Netbook OS Launched (ubergizmo.com)
• Checking out the Jolicloud Netbook OS (slumpedoverkeyboarddead.com)
• Jolicloud OS alpha release struts its stuff… on video! (engadget.com)
• Nice timing: Netbook OS startup Jolicloud raises $4.2M (deals.venturebeat.com)
• Jolicloud lands funding and takes on Google (vator.tv)
• JoliCloud.com – New OS For Your Net Book (killerstartups.com)

In all other countries [not United States, United Kingdom or Germany ], listening to Last.fm Radio will soon require a subscription of €3.00 per month. There will be a 30 track free trial, and we hope this will convince people to subscribe and keep listening to the radio.

src: http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/24/lastfm-radio-announcement

It happened. Another company turned away a massive portion of the world. Well, they are making them pay for NOT being where the advertisers are. More countries might be added to that list down the road but for some countries like my own, that is highly unlikely.

So everyone else gets about 2 hours of radio. Per account. I am not seeing people going trough the trouble of making multiple accounts to be able to listen to more but come on.. how about limiting people to listening to the charts ? Or to songs freely given to Last.fm for promotional purposes ? You cannot tell me that Last.fm pays for each and every song that is played on it. With a audience as big as this, I bet there are people who would pay for their music to be played more frequently and I wouldnt blame Last.fm for excepting that money.

One of the reasons I think that is already the case is the inability of someone to ban a certain artist or tag. http://www.last.fm/forum/21717/_/380227/4 And dont go saying it will ban a artist when you ban enough songs. It is simply imposible to get rid of Bri#### Spea## of the pop radio.

I am a subscriber. I love Last.fm (probably tuning in 90% of the time my workstation is on). There was no real reason for me to subscribe back when I did. I just wanted to give something back. I didn’t care and I don’t care for the little things i get extra for subscribing.
And there is where I think the problem is. How about making people want to be subscribed ?

• Songs on demand
• Official Premiers (you say you work directly with artists ?)
• Tickets to concerts .. official ware from artits..

etc… there is so much that could be done.

And fix the damn song exceleration/flickers after a long time of usage. (only noticed that on Vista trough.)