JoliOS - Linux for the rest of us

A friend of mine asked me if I would take a look at her Compaq Mini 110c and see if I could resurrect it. I said "Sure, why not?" I've never worked on a netbook before and figured it wouldn't be much different than any other PC.

We got together and she gave me a rundown of what was going on, it just booted up to a blinking cursor. I figured  Windows XP (what it came with) was just corrupted and run the restore and it should be good. Well after about a month of fighting and researching I discovered this is a common issue with these little machines and unfortunately there isn't an easy resolution. So I let her know that its probably best to reformat and re-install windows. She was cool with that so I proceeded to spend another 2 months trying to get Windows XP to boot off a USB drive as the Mini has no CD Rom. Needless to say it was a long fight that I lost. My friend ultimately ended up getting a new netbook which was probably the best decision in the long run. I talked to her about the Mini as I was fascinated by it at this point and was determined to get something to run on it!

I proceeded to research operating systems to see what was out there that would be light, easy to figure out and easy to install on netbooks. I stumbled across JoliOS which is a Linux distribution. Now those of you that know me know that I love the concept of Linux and the fact that it's free and almost as good (program compatibility issues) as Windows is a great choice. However I shy away from Linux as I'm too dependent on certain applications that don't run very well in Wine. However I think I may have found my savior in JoliOS! Joli is based upon Ubuntu, the popular Linux distro that has really brought Linux into the mainstream.

According to Wikipedia, "Joli OS is an Ubuntu-based GNU/Linux operating system developed by the company Jolicloud. The operating system was itself called “Jolicloud” until version 1.2, when the company renamed it “Joli OS”. The product name “Jolicloud” now refers to a cloud desktop for managing Web apps, files, services and as a computer Operating System.". So as you may have guessed it's cloud based. Yes and no, you can still access the local file system, network drives and such through the underlying Ubuntu OS. "Eeewww, that means I have to dig into Linux!" Not necessarily, JoliOS makes this easy and fun to use! The interface is similar to a smartphone or iPhone/iPod/iPad touch. Now for experienced linux users, you can dig deeper, but for new or novice users like myself, there's no need.

JoliOS' interface is simple, clean and easy to use. As you can see from the picture to the left it looks like an iPad! There is an app for just about any current online or cloud based service out there. (I'm actually writing this entry from the Blogger app.) You can add apps from the app area or create your own. I haven't tried that yet so I'm not sure how that works. Needless to say I am very pleased with JoliOS and am loving it! It's actually taking all that I can to not convert over! Speaking of converting, JoliOS is perfect for those of you new to Linux and want to resurrect an older PC like for the kids or even grandma. Lots of social media apps, educational apps and yes, even Angry Birds. For those of you that want a little more, you can access the file system and such by using the Local Files app. I was able to copy some movies, pictures and music over to the Mini from my network drive.

The only thing I was bummed about is of course my weather applications. I storm spot for a hobby and have three certain applications I use but they are all Windows based. I figured I would never get them to work. Wine is one of the apps that JoliOS features and helps you get some of your Windows based programs to function in Linux. So I thought I would give it a try. I copied the installation files over and they were immediately picked up by wine and had a little wine glass added to their icon. I double clicked on the executable to see how it would react and it installed them! All but one was able to work without an issue so two out of three isn't bad! I can access these programs from the local apps section. I haven't figured out how to make an app icon like in the screen shot or if it's even possible but I'm not all that concerned as i can still easily find and access them.

JoliOS may be the Linux distribution the rest of the world has been waiting for. I highly recommend you give it a try, they have a cool program that allows you to create a bootable USB stick which you can try it on. It takes a couple of hours to get used to it but once you do you'll find that surfing the web and participating in social activity is much more fun.