This weekend, I installed Jolicloud on Leslee's netbook.  Jolicloud is currently in private alpha.  I put in for a key quite a long time ago.  A few months ago, I finally got accepted.  But....I've been really busy with the wedding and honeymoon, so it just sat there.  Now I regret it.  Wow, Jolicloud is phenominal.

I've tried Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) before, and it was a good start.  But it needed some major love.  Jolicloud gave it that love, and then more, much much more.  All the aspects of UNR are there, but they work better now.   Applications take up nearly the entire screen. 

The usual UNR task bar is at the top, but it appears they've improved upon the UNR one (or UNR improved since last I used it).  The title is only shown for your active applications, and other apps show up as a simple icon, which is an extremely effective use of space in a netbook.

The most impressive part of Jolicloud is My Jolicloud.  It is an application that let's you configure Jolicloud, update Jolicloud, and install applications.  And let me be clear, it is freaking beautiful.  My Jolicloud is easy to use, and very useful.  It presents a very nicely laid out list of applications, each showing an attractive icon (think IPhone main screen).  It's simply one click to install any of them.  My Jolicloud also has a "buddy follow" feature.  Sort of a social aspect, where you can follow other friends that have a Jolicloud netbook.  This isn't terribly useful in a private alpha, but maybe in the future it will be more interesting.

Many of the Jolicloud applications are simply web applications.  But unlike the Xandros that shipped with early Asus netbooks, Jolicloud uses Mozilla Prism in a seamless way.  To the user, an app is a nice looking desktop icon that launches full screen, rather than something shown as another tab in a browser whose toolbars are taking up most of the small screen.  Installation of these Prism apps is done like any other application - one click from My Jolicloud.

Further, Jolicloud seems to work very well with this Asus 701's hardware.  Skype works, suspend works.  Battery life seems to be better than with other version of Linux I've installed on this.  And performance is quite good, especially compared to the other Ubuntu-based distributions I've tried.

I only have two complaints.  

First, and this is a complaint I already have about UNR, is that I really wish that the main screen's right-side items, which are filesystem shortcuts, launched in the same screen's main area.  They don't.  Instead, they launch into a new Nautilus window, that looks oddly out of place in UNR.  

Second, the My Jolicloud feature requires an account.  I can appreciate why they've done this for a private alpha, but I have a sinking suspicion that it is permanent, by design.  Perhaps the business model is to charge for this feature.  Which may sound fine, but since My Jolicloud is required to update and install software, it's an absolute requirement to run Jolicloud.  I'm suspicious that the business model may be to charge for accounts.  Not that I have a big issue with them expecting to be paid, but hey, I still love my free toys.

Anyway, if you can get a Jolicloud account, definitely give it a go.  If you don't have one but you have a netbook, sign up for one.  You won't regret it.