Joli OS – Your new personal cloud desktop

Joli OS is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution for netbooks. It is geared towards extreme user-friendliness so that any computer user can install it with just one click. Besides the standard ISO image, the distribution is also provided as a Windows executable file which can resize an existing Windows partition and install Joli OS as an alternative operating system. Other Joli OS features include heavy orientation towards web application and services, online backup option, web-based software installation interface, inclusion of proprietary hardware drivers and non-free media codecs, and extensive social networking features.

CloudShare’s free product has been used in many ways — but we wanted to see if we could access it via iPad. (We know iPhone works, and of course an actual computer works). We can. Come get your own free Personal Cloud Computer (PC2) at cloudshare.com/pro

Ubuntu Linux heads to the clouds

The first Ubuntu circle of friends logo.

Last week, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company Canonical CEO Jane Silber announced at the OpenStack cloud software conference that HP has chosen Ubuntu as the lead host and guest operating system for its Public Cloud. That’s impressive. It’s Canonical’s biggest enterprise win to date, but that’s only a hint of what Canonical is up to with the cloud.

Canonical started its move to OpenStack from Eucalyptus in February. While Canonical has promised its not going to leave its Eucalyptus users without support, the company is clearly pinning all its cloud plans going forward around OpenStack.

To be exact, according the company, “Ubuntu Cloud Infrastructure now includes OpenStack as the core infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) element of Ubuntu Cloud. Canonical’s investment in lightweight container technology LXC alongside the well-known KVM and Xen virtualization technologies, has resulted in a tightly integrated cloud infrastructure solution that works across all hardware platforms. That means any business can deploy Ubuntu Cloud Infrastructure on their preferred server platform today.”

HP and Canonical are now working together in HP’s private cloud beta to make certain that it will work well. Since Ubuntu is the reference OS for OpenStack and this is a major play by HP a lot depends on Canonical getting this right.

This isn’t just about some business cloud play though. I talked with Mark Baker, Canonical’s server product manager, and he kept telling me about how Ubuntu plans on making it easy for companies to deploy to Ubuntu-based clouds with Juju.

Juju you ask? Juju, formerly Ensemble, lets you easily start-up and manage application services on the cloud. According to Canonical, “Juju is a next generation service deployment and orchestration framework. It has been likened to APT for the cloud. With juju, different authors are able to create service charms independently, and make those services coordinate their communication through a simple protocol. Users can then take the product of different authors and very comfortably deploy those services in an environment. The result is multiple machines and components transparently collaborating towards providing the requested service.”

So say you want to launch a blogging site on the Web. With Juju you invoke the charms for say WordPress, MySQL and a Web server and, ta-da, you have a blogging site. Need more DBMS power or more Web servers just add as required with Juju. Don’t need them anymore, take them down. No fuss. No muss.

Juju was a technology preview in Ubuntu 11.04, but it’s real in Ubuntu 11.10. The cloud behind it though isn’t just for servers. No, in Ubuntu’s new world view, the desktop is part of the cloud.

Gerry Carr, Canonical’s marketing manager, told me that the Ubuntu 11.10 desktop is a step from a PC being simply a piece of hardware on your desk. Eventually, it will equally be a gateway to the power of the cloud. “We’re moving away form concept of local PC to one where the local PC and cloud will be equally important.”

Canonical is already working on this. For example, Ubuntu One, Canonical’s combination cloud storage and music streaming service, is now available not just for Ubuntu users on Ubuntu but on Android, iOS and, get ready for it, Windows as well.

So, what’s a nice Linux desktop feature doing on Windows? According to Carr, it’s because Canonical “doesn’t want to restrict you to the Ubuntu desktop. We’re moving away from the concept of the local PC to the cloud. On the cloud, content is king and we must liberate content across multiple devices.”

In short, sure Canonical wants you to run an Ubuntu desktop, but they also know you can’t always do that, and what’s more important is that you have access to your data, your music, whatever, no matter what you’re running locally. And, the best way to do that, according to Canonical, will be from Ubuntu-powered clouds. 

iOS 5 and iCloud Available October 12

Ahead of the iPhone 4S release on October 14 Apple will release iOS 5 to the public. On the same day, October 12, Apple will unleash iCloud to users of iOS 5 and OS X Lion.
“iCloud is the easiest way to manage your content, because iCloud does it all for you and goes far beyond anything available today,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “You don’t have to think about syncing your devices, because it happens automatically, and it is free.”
iCloud services include iTunes in the Cloud, Photo Stream and Documents in the Cloud, that work seamlessly with your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices.
iOS 5 which was previewed in detail back in June at its unveiling has today been released as a golden master to registered iOS developers. iOS 5 includes over 200 new features including Notification Center, an innovative way to easily view and manage notifications in one place without interruption; iMessage™, a new messaging service that lets you easily send text messages, photos and videos between all iOS 5 users; and Newsstand, a new way to purchase and organize your newspaper and magazine subscriptions.
iCloud will be available on October 12 as a free download to iPhone, iPad or iPod touch users running iOS 5 or a Mac running OS X Lion with a valid Apple ID. iCloud includes 5GB of free cloud storage for Mail, Document Storage and Backup. Purchased music, TV shows, apps, books and Photo Stream do not count against the storage limit. iTunes Match will be available starting in the US later this month for $24.99 a year. Using iCloud with a PC requires Windows Vista or Windows 7; Outlook 2010 or 2007 is recommended for accessing contacts and calendars. Additional iCloud storage upgrades are available to purchase starting at $20 a year for 10GB, $40 a year for 20GB and $100 a year for 50GB.
iOS 5 will be available as a free software update for iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad and iPod touch (third and fourth generation) customers, allowing them to experience the amazing new features.