Just put a new page up in the projects section on getting internet in my new car. I was able to mount a 3G wifi router into the kleenex box holder of the center console in the car. Takes up zero space that would have been used for anything else and gives me and my passengers instant internet.
Dec
11
Quick little bit of geekery. I bought a new(er) car and have finally decided to start putting all of the “wouldn’t this be neat” stuff into it since I’ll be rolling on this one for awhile. First piece of gear that went in today was a zoom portable, battery powered access point that accepts a USB 3G card. I don’t have a USB 3G card, but I do have an ExpressCard one. So add to that a SIIG USB to ExpressCard adapter and viola, instant internet. I wanted to really geek it up and build a linux box using a Sheeva plug and an atheros wifi card acting as an AP, but all of the gear was just under $110, so it didn’t make much since to cobble. If you see me on the highway, I’m broadcasting /dev/car as my ssid. Hop on and have fun!
Dec
2
*Note* This is a review of an early access release of a pre-beta project. A pre-pre-beta if you will. The pre-beta release will be available Dec. 10th.
Alpha users (and pre-beta testers) will just have to update their Jolicloud to get all new features! *Note*
I’ve been using an early developer pre-pre-beta version of Jolicloud on my Aspire One ZA3 for a little over a week now and here are my impressions.
Jolicloud is a netbook centric OS based around ubuntu but with a heavily modified UI. The stated goal is for Jolicloud to be an internet operating system leveraging open software and an open internet and it does a lot of things very, very well.
First, this is some really beautiful software. Almost shockingly so when you compare the UI to the boot screen. While the boot screen reminds me of a MAC OS 9 machine coming to life, the UI is a hybrid of OSX, Ubuntu NBR, Vista Aero and becomes a creature unique to Jolicloud. Boot times on my Aspire were around 27 seconds with all of the latest updates and seem to be entirely tied up in my slow harddrive. The desktop centers around an almost Android usability model of the running app getting as much screen real-estate as possible but still being the multitasking Linux operating system we know and love. Switching between tasks is done with the familiar ALT+TAB or the novel task bar at the top of the screen. Instead of large windowed tasks running along the bar, getting increasingly smaller as apps open up, Jolicloud simply displays the icon of running tasks and leaves the remainder of the bar to the main task. It doesn’t sound like such a big deal to describe on paper, but it’s a real boon for someone like myself that is nearly obsessed with a clean computing layout which is essential in netbooks.
Jolicloud has a fair amount of sanctioned apps ready for install in the app catalog. Some of them are as simple as a locked in browser going to a specific web page (facebook for example) up to the custom written Jolicloud application that manages your identities, updates, etc. I had no problem with the app manager, but I am still a bit unclear on how to add my own apps like a MythTV Frontend.
Most of my hardware worked out of the box with only a few quirks. Audio is hit or miss on my machine and seems to be related to whether or not I was in windows first or Jolicloud first. The CPU on the ZA3 isn’t great and won’t play full screen hi-def flash video (in windows or Jolicloud) and while hibernate works, coming out of suspend does not wake up the video card and leaves you with a black screen.
Speaking of screen, video is the big breakthrough with the pre-pre-beta. Intel made a deal with the devil on the GMA500 video chipset and open source drivers don’t exist for it. This means we’re stuck with good old VESA video which is so painfully slow as to be unusable. The pre-pre-beta has managed to do some kernel magic and integrate the poulsbo drivers into what they are calling a “matrix” kernel and allows Jolicloud to have fully accelerated video on a GMA500 laptop without having to support a bunch of different kernel configurations. This is really glossing over the technicals, but suffice to say it’s a GOOD thing and it works! I’m able to easily play a DVD on my machine and was able to do 720p h264. Another nice surprise was that the network manager recognized my Android based phone when I plugged it in and was immediately ready to tether.
As most of you know, I’m a very nuts and bolts sort of guy. I went a little crazy trying to reorient myself to the Apple way when I tried out OSX and was never able to make the switch. While I need to spend more time with the pre-pre-beta, Jolicloud seems to have struck a really good compromise between Fast, pretty, simple and flexible. All of the dirty bits are there, but well hidden. When I need to get into the internals I just hit the console button and tada, it’s linux. For 90% of the my day though, I use the 6 icons I’ve put on my dashboard and never think twice about it, there are a few things I would change though.
For such a neat looking OS, the boot screen is really drab. I would like to see a boot screen similar to older SuSE linux bootsplash that would animate a specific component as it was reached during the boot cycle (a spinning harddrive mounting filesystems, a flashing nic when the network is brought online, etc).
More apps and a wizard driven interface for adding your own apps to the dashboard.
This is pie in the sky, but it would be great if suspend would work on my laptop. I know that acpi suspend in linux is very difficult, so this isn’t a Jolicloud specific wish but a larger “wish linux did” request.
For a later review, I’m going to make Jolicloud my primary OS for the next 3 weeks and see what provisions are in place to help a deep geek make the OS his own, but for an early pre release of a pre release (!) this thing is polished and fun to use. Grab a pre-beta copy Dec 10th and see for yourself!