It has been a while since I posted my last entry, but with the upcoming new netbook OS's it seemed to be the right time to get back into blogging.
I have tried both: Moblin and Jolicloud. Both are different OS's and have there own strengths. I will not tell you about bugs, hang ups, because both OS's haven't reached final release yet. Moblin is in Beta and Jolicloud in Alpha release.
Let's get started. Well as for Moblin, you can just download the image, put it on an usb-stick and install or test run. As for Jolicloud you'll need an invitation, which you can ask on there site. On the other hand, Moblin doesn't run on a whole lot of machines, certainly not those small screen netbooks (like EeePC701 with a 800x480 screen). That may already be a very good point, considering your choice.
Let's start with Moblin. This one, actually is a complete new Linux Distribution. It doesn't look, feel or handels like any other Linux distro (but it still is one). Claiming it is a new OS is completely wrong, as for Jolicloud, same story. Both are Linux. Moblin went for the looks. They got a completely new GUI, never seen before. clean, simple and very intuitive. Actually, I think, this is the way GUI on netbooks should look.
Moblin made a choice: simplicity. All you need on a netbook is: a browser, an instant messenger, a status reporter, PIM and media. A very smooth taskbar which gives you access to all those programs and a home screen with all your favourites summed up. No more, No less. But if you want more, you can install more.
Now Jolicloud, that is a completely different story. This Distro is based on Ubuntu NBR, even the GUI has Ubuntu NBR written all over it. But, don't get fooled. Jolicloud has it's own repositories. Now the biggest difference I could see, is that jolicloud actually runs as a program on top of the distro.
What is it? well to me it feels like a manager to install programs, but with the advantage of storing the configuration files on-line. This way you can reinstall or install it on an other netbook and keep all of your installed programs and there configs. Very handy, because you will only need to make your configurations once.
The other smart thing is, that is makes use of prism. This way, you can add internet sites to your desktop as they would be standalone programs. Combining this with maximized windows and it really feels like your using a program instead of a browser. Well and that's about it.
Now which one should you download? None of both. As stated above, they or not in final release yet. I used both, and sometimes they got buggy. Before I left for my holidays, I reinstalled ubuntu 9.04, just to be sure I wouldn't get stuck.
But let's forget for a minute that those distro's are in alpha or beta. Which one should you get your hands on. Well as for Moblin you can start downloading it right now. Jolicloud won't let you do that, you'll need an invitation code. You can ask one, on there website and then you'll have to wait, wait and wait some more. After a month or so, you'll be Jolicouded and get the download code.
But seriously which one should you go for? In my opinion? They should bring out a mix of both ditro's. Because I like the GUI Moblin (very very much), but I really love the special thing Jolicloud does (but I don't like the GUI). My guess is, that changing the GUI of Jolicloud is something that would be much easier to do, than making out of Moblin a Jolicloud alike. So for now, you'll have to go for the looks of an Italian sports car, or the "easy to use" of a Swedish car, but you can't have both for now.
links:
Jolicloud: http://www.jolicloud.com/
Moblin: http://moblin.org/
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