I just stumbled upon the Jolicloud 1.1 operating system which has been developed especially for Netbooks. It is based on the Ubuntu Netbook Remix Linux distribution and shows lots of HTML5 capabilities. There is a Windows installer but you can also install it as your primary operating system. To gain a better impression of Jolicloud I installed it as virtual instance  with Oracle’s VirtualBox. Of course you could also install it on your USB drive.

Startup screen after loading the Jolicloud ISO image in VirtualBox.

Minimal boot screen.

At the login screen you can register for a new account or login via Facebook. As you from the right-click menu, this is already browser-based.

After sign-up this welcome screen will pop-up.

The home screen includes links to the most famous social media apps like Facebook or Twitter. In the background they use Mozilla's Prism installer to make a browser based app out of these services.

It also has a menu for system settings.

There is also an App Center where you can download about 750 apps.

The app or friend search is amazingly fast!

As there is an Ubuntu Linux running in the background you've also got a Terminal.

If the system is losing connection to the cloud, you'll get an error message like this.

You can customize your Desktop like any other system and use on of the pre-defined wallpapers or even paste an URL to your own favorite wallpaper.

Also the shutdown dialogue just looks like any other operating system.

Conclusion

Overall Jolicloud 1.1 almost feels like an operating system to me. You can install your own local apps and for the low-level fans you even have a Terminal. It might be a good choice for an older Notebook or slow Netbook.

Pros

• Good hardware compatibility http://www.jolicloud.com/product/compatibility
• Easy and fast install process
• Amazingly fast boot-up
• Low power consumption

Cons

• ToS http://www.jolicloud.com/tos
• Sometimes the cloud seemed a bit laggy to me and the services took some time to reload
• At some points it still feels like a beta version and not a final 1.1 release

Let me know what you think about it and if you’re using it in for your productive working environment.