Last month I wrote about why Netbooks, which are small, low end computers that are selling like crazy, just aren’t good enough for most users.
Small screens, small keyboards and underpowered hardware make for a less than stellar Netbook user experience. But Netvibes Founder Tariq Krim, who left Netvibes on a full time basis last May, thinks he can fix that.
His solution is an elegant new software stack called Jolicloud - users will download Jolicloud to their Netbooks and then install it. Whatever operating system and software is on the computer will be wiped off, and replaced with a stripped down Linux operating system and custom browser.
Jolicloud isn’t ready to launch yet. I did manage to track Tariq down for a few minutes here in Paris to get a demo, though, on a low end Asus Eee PC. He won’t yet share proper screen shots of the user interface, saying it isn’t locked down yet. But I did grab a couple of blurry photos with my phone.
The user interface resembles the iPhone - it includes large icons (easier for viewing on Netbooks) and very little fluff to keep the hardware humming. Jolicloud will also support touchscreens, which will work well with the icon-based navigation. Bookmarked sites are actually individual Prism applications.
There are a ton of other features as well, including a planned application platform for third party developers, but the company has asked us to keep our reporting to a minimum until they are ready to release Jolicloud into private beta. Which should, Tariq promises, be very soon.
For competition, check out Good OS, which is another stripped down operating system that’s perfect for low end PCs. Good OS is different, though, in that the company is targeting device manufacturers to add it as a dual boot option. Jolicloud is going straight to the consumer to encourage them to try it out.
As a heavy tester of Netbooks, I can say that Jolicloud is a huge step forward in terms of usability. Netbooks are so different from normal laptops and desktops that they need their own tailored operating system. Until now that appeared to be Windows XP, which is the OS of choice for Netbook manufacturers. But I expect those manufacturers will take a long look at Jolicloud and consider licensing it, or copying it, soon.
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Looks like he’s customising the netbook interface as used in ubuntu’s netbook remix http://www.canonical.com/projects/ubuntu/nbr
Agree
Looks like the same interface layout and colors to me too. But ubuntu’s netbook remix is not really much liter/stripped down than xubuntu.
That’s what I was going to say…
Exactly, no wonder he didn’t want screenshots taken, is he allowed commercialise and profit from ubuntu’s work like that? I’m pretty sure it’s under a CC type arrangement.
I use Ubuntu remix, all he’s changed is the logo (to his own), he even kept the same window border and icon theme as the ubuntu netbook remix’s default!
It’s fine for him to use open source code, but I’m unsure about the legalities of trying to profit from it, at the very least, he could have credited Ubuntu!
Not a Netbook but a Netvibes book.
Smart. Very Smart.
Is this just a larger Ipod Touch?
I am a big fan of the Ipod Touch with its Wifi access.
What if you added a cell phone (unlocked) into the Netvibes book? Use bluetooth earpiece to connect to the Netvibes book.
So, you would then have an Iphone Book. Convenient keyboard and nice big (comparatively) screen.
Smart. Very Smart
Hesitations
More like a color Kindle.
Yep, that’s Ubuntu Netbook Remix alright. The only difference I sea is a cloud instead of the ubuntu logo at the top left corner.
Um.. how is this different than the linux distro that shipped on the eeepc’s? The touchscreen support is nice, but the eeepc was tabs and icons, doesn’t seem like that much is new.
It’s missing a Netvibes logo.
Gee… wouldn’t Android be sweet in this situation?
what we see on the picture is the Ubuntu Netbook Remix…. no more no less
This sounds really interesting coming from Tariq you know the user interface and interaction will be spot on ! I might have to buy a Netbook after all
Where are the Netvibes widgets?
Very cool.
I am working on my own “OS” or “SP” (Social Platform and we just came up with a new name - OzoneOS
All your social media tools for the cloud in the Ozone
The screenshot is just a Ubuntu Remix. Now, if he manages to make Ubuntu Remix 100% hardware compatible with all netbooks, then he’s got something.
I think Tariq just duped Michael with a decoy. Well played, sir. Well played.
“Small screens, small keyboards and underpowered hardware make for a less than stellar Netbook user experience.”
Um, besides the fact that the screen shot is Ubuntu Remix, which I have running on my Dell Mini 9 by the way. How exactly does a new GUI interface fix the small keyboard, small screen, underpowered hardware problem?
if you have a better GUI (large icons) you can use the touch screen instead of the small keyboard
What touchscreen? moron…
That is why the real solution will be netbook-sized tablets (easily held in your lap with one hand), with a new generation of handwriting recognition and pen/touch gestures.
Forget about trying to make the HWR smart and recognize EVERYBODY’s handwriting, just train it on mine from the start, making each character/word more of a cypher than anything. Great potential for shortcuts/abbreviation expansion as well, just let me tell the dang thing what my squiggles mean.
Then add an OS capability for connecting chunks of text via gestures such as circling and arrows, to allow for a form of mind-mapping, integrate this with the file mgmt etc.
Netbooks/iPod Touch are only modest beginnings towards new form factors.
Small world. I just posted this on Cloudy Days and Netbook Nights early this morning.
http://cdnn.wordpress.com/2008.....lop-an-os/
This looks just like my asus 701 with ubuntu eee. Where’s the originality?
Ubuntu Eee 8.10 is released on the 1st of January
Under another name of course, because of a trademark issue
You can expect a beta any day:
http://jonramvi.com
this is cool, netvibes rocks
Funding???
I’d help tariq but only if I knew he had funding. I built a lfs based system which I rpm’d 3 years ago.
You threatened to sue me a couple years ago, remember tariq? *(.us)
I would quit my day job but if you want help let me know
That should say I WOULDN’T quit my day job. Oh hell no I wouldn’t.
I expect huge annoying device compatibility issues as all of the Linux distros I have auditioned have required some amount of research, Googling about, and / or support from a 15 year old prodigy.
If the systems is customized to certain netbook platforms, maybe that will be a win - I know that the Webtop instant boot on some main boards is very workable, and quite useful.
It could be great - BUT!! ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ - so why would I install it then? The idea of then having to fix some wireless or printing botch up makes me want to weep :p
I hope you are on to something though! Break a leg
this looks like a smart move. knowing about the limitations of web app development at netvibes,
one could envision a faster version running not on top of a web browser but a real operating system, not based on ajax/javascript locally and rails/php on the servers, but something c based, or at least haskell or python based.
with the sexyness of migrating with your core data into the cloud using webservices. it will be no surprise to see something like netvibes framework but orders of magnitude faster, even on a netbook running at the speed of a notebook from 2003. (big deal…)
http://shootout.alioth.debian......p;lang=all
that seems like a great idea on their par. I hope that its customized though…
Sounds funky
Having just brought a cheap as chips nokia tablet off eBay I can see how this scaled down operating system for netbooks makes sense. little screens are okay for tweeting or reading pdf’s in bed - cheaper than an ebook reader.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_770
Wow, talk about a good idea.
Congrats Tariq
Mr. Krim’s timing sure sucks. He demos his new software on an Asus device the same day the netbook manufacturer announces that they are joining the Open Handset Alliance and adopting Android. First Google Gadgets and Open Social make his Netvibes platform practically irrelevant and now he has to compete head on with Google again. D’oh!
Get real. Netbooks are just going to get cheaper and more powerful that most users would be able to do 70% of their job on them. If downloading Jolicloud only gives you limited things to work on then users might even find doing less than 30% of their work on it.
You don’t expect to do Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server, Active Directory Development on Netbooks. Do you? Does installing Jolicloud help either?
But you can rest assured that on any Linux computer with the proper packages (RPM’s or DEB’s) you can do MONO, C, Perl, Python, PHP, MySQL, LDAP Development…
One could do Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server, Active Directory development if the tools to get things done were not so heavy (or required such a heavy OS).
——
As for the “this is Ubuntu’s Network Remix”, well that’s the beauty of working with Open Source… Tariq might have found a way to integrate more stuff into it, make it lighter or more compatible…
The thing with Linux OSes is that if something isn’t there, you can just install it using the supplied app repositories.
What troubles me is our common lack of perspective… Not so long ago we would have done many stuff with a less powered PC!
My complain with this devices? The battery… I want to be able to use it from battery for 4-6 hours… That’s it.
A total ripoff of the Ubuntu Eee User Interface: http://www.ubuntu-eee.com/wiki.....ee8041.png
Looks like Tarik just made a fool of Michael… again?
Great idea! congratulations Tarik! hope that is gonna be as innovative as netvibes
As a ‘heavy netbook user’ how did you not recognise Ubuntu Netbook Remix? Or was your iphone comparison merely for the non-tech crowd?
“Small screens, small keyboards and underpowered hardware make for a less than stellar Netbook user experience. But Netvibes Founder Tariq Krim, who left Netvibes on a full time basis last May, thinks he can fix that.”
Let me get this: Arrington claims that netbooks have small screens and keyboards and are underpowered but that this SOFTWARE will solve that?
Really?
I want to see this Linux distro that will make the screens and keyboards larger and make the chips more powerful.
What this guy has done is strip down Linux to the basics (and that looks like Netbook Remix) and allow it only to run a browser which is nice but if I get rid of the Ubuntu on my Dell mini 9 and install this OS what does it get me more?
A slightly faster browser?
And what do I lose?
Everything else I do that isnt web based?
How is NOT being able to edit some audio in Audacity a plus? How is not being able to crop/paste/modify pictures on the fly going to something better?
As someone who does many things on the Linux netbooks that arent web based, I think Arrington has always missed the boat on netbooks (or maybe doesnt want to legitimize a competition to his vapourware).
But with this article he takes it to absurd levels while contradicting himself.
I would love to hear Arrington explain how this software will solve the hardware problems he claims the netbooks have.
So tariq is gonna kill me but he showed me the demo of jolicloud at le web. I must say i am very impressed by the project. I can’t disclose what it is exactly but it’s’true that they have based their work on existing linux but why shouldn’t they ? I know tariq has been a linux user since the early days (you remember minix ?) and introduced me to slackware a while ago. Use and improve is what opensource is about. I really think the linux word needs the eyes of a product master like tariq
Cool thing is that it’s’already the first clean implementation of ubuntu 8.10 with an optimized kernel for all atom netbooks without all the bugs from ubuntu eee and other stuff i have tried (like a proper shutdown and battery optimisation,3g support,…)
Themes are really nice and i have seen them using an improved version of netbook remix but if i understand well they are planning to redesign an interface from scratch because netbook remix is too slow. I am not sure about any touchscreen may be you guys had more infos on this
I can’t wait for a beta !
From a european perspective i think netbooks are going to be the must have this christmas, so i think tariq got a good one on this. Looking foward to see how things evolve as it’s’not going to be an easy ride.
Good luck !
Actually Ubuntu Eee 8.10 (release date January 1st) will be the first clean implementation of Ubuntu 8.10 with an optimized kernel for all atom netbooks without all the bugs from 8.04, like proper shutdown and battery optimisation, 3g support,…
About time. And while they’re at it make sure this new OS can load and protect 3rd party software. Consider a licensed key or something, but nothing too overbearing. Game developers would just love to have something to compete with Nintendo DS or Sony PSP that doesn’t have all of the licensing hassles.
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This may be good for the computer clueless, but if you’ve actually used Linux before or are interested in trying it out, wouldn’t you rather just… use linux? What does this offer above using Xubuntu eee? Xubuntu is still a real OS that in principle can install any program and have it work. This OS may be great as long as you stay within a certain “box” of web browsing, using certain applications like openoffice, but suppose you want to do something that the creator didn’t plan on? Suppose I want my netbook to run Amarok (which there’s absolutely no reason why it can’t do). Amarok however is normally part of KDE, and as such has various required libraries. If you’re running Xubuntu, you can go ahead and install those libraries, but on this custom system who knows just how much control you will or won’t have…