i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

You can see I have added a category for "jolicloud" to my blog.  I now have two computers running Jolicloud and everything is going great(er) than expected!

...

When I tried the beta, I did not realize that Jolicloud was sitting on top of a full Ubuntu install.  I had used Ubuntu/Kubuntu at one point -- as I have mentioned before, in Linux my adage is "when all else fails, try a different distro" and for awhile I found myself bouncing back and forth between OpSu and Kubuntu, depending on which had the better drivers for my hardware at any given time.  But, I tend to like the package availability on OpSu -- seems a bit more business oriented to me -- and so I had lately settled on using it.  In fact, I also had some ongoing issues, but they weren't enough to motivate me to try a Kubuntu install again.

So, as I say, I've got two computers running Jolicloud and it's going great.  But, that is not to say I haven't started customizing to the point of nearly-not-recognizable-Jolicloud.  I guess I can't help myself.

But what I haven't done (yet) is mess with any of the core software.  I'm a bit puzzled about the menu system, since Jolicloud runs a "desktop switcher" in the autostart -- but I can't find any way to trigger it.  In some of the Support images, I find a drop-down menu from the main panel "cloud" icon, similar to most OS start menus.  So, I'm quite frankly puzzled.  I have the feeling this is something that was pioneered in the beta but left out of the recently released 1.0?  Don't know -- and don't use Facebook or Twitter, so I guess I'll never find out.  I thought somehow you get logged into the Jolicloud "stream" community, but nothing shows up in my stream, nor do I see a way to browse and add users.  I am guessing this must be somehow connected to Facebook.

Maybe I will see what happens with an install of Cairo Dock.  There are also some other jolicloud packages in Synaptics that change the desktop -- but unload the default one.  I'm hesitant to try this and remove "jolicloud minimal," as one of my main efforts is to get an old kludgy-in-WindowsXP computer functional.  So, I don't want to inadvertently switch from "minimal" to "kludgy."

Because right at the moment, this computer is running like it was Brand New.  Are you kidding me???  There is even a minimal Wine install, which the only thing seemingly working is Notepad -- but if you like Notepad editor, it comes up a whole lot faster than the actual genuine Notepad that is on this computer when it boots in WindowsXP.

So, I've been customizing like crazy, digging through the Synaptics archives.  So far, I've got Akregator, Dolphin, Konqueror, Thunderbird, DavMail ... and what else?  Can't remember.

(I wish someone would write a "cloud" clone of Akregator that I could put on my own server, so I could synchronize my reading without having Google looking over my shoulder as I read my favorite blogs ...)

We can dream.

I want to mention the Thunderbird/DavMail setup.  As mentioned here before, I have to interface with the Windows Server from my office.  So, I can use rdesktop to access the Server (and BTW, it works a whole lot better than doing the same thing from a WindowsXP install running on this same computer -- plus it's easy to customize the connection).  But, the awkwardness is that Windows Server will only let me print locally to printers that are installed ON THIS COMPUTER.  (Network computers, Fail.)  Who uses a computer that is not a network computer these days?  Oh, well I can easily print my documents on the big printer at work -- which I do by mistake occasionally -- but it's a 100 mile drive to go get the printout and by the time I get there someone has thrown it away.)

For a long time it did not occur to me to try and access the Exchange server directly.  I knew they did not have IMAP active -- and there is some benefit to the security of sending email internally rather than unencrypted across the internet.

Then one day I wanted to hook up my iTouch -- and found out I could easily access the Exchange server.  So, if on the iTouch, why not on my regular Linux computer.

Well, first off, Thunderbird doesn't and that's the one I use.  Don't know about KMail.  I used to use KMail, but ran into some problems with it taking up too much CPU syncing my IMAP accounts.  I've tried Evolution occasionally, but could not love the interface.  But, as it turns out Evolution will access Windows Server 2003 (I think) and I was "in."

But, this just made me want to get Thunderbird running.  Yesterday I came across DavMail, which is a server interface sort of thing.  It accesses the Exchange server, and re-routes it as IMAP/Pop or whatever.  Took me a couple of tries to understand HOW to connect (IMAP>localhost>port 1143 or whatever it says in the settings; and don't use encryption -- I assume, but don't know that DavMail sets up the encryption with the Exchange server itself.)

Lastly, one of the Jolicloud drawbacks is that it is on outdated Ubuntu Jaunty, which is almost at end of life.  For whatever reason, Ubuntu has pushed the current Firefox, but Thunderbird is still stuck at the 2.x series.

Enter Ubuntuzilla, which provides a repository (and deb) for installing 3.x.  Now, the only problem with this is -- one of Jolicloud's great features, that I am constantly bypassing, is to use "web launchers" that will synchronize my application installs.  But, at least as far as I could tell, the two Thunderbird versions run in parallel, so 3.1 doesn't just replace 2.x and then launch from the Jolicloud launch icon.  Don't know why -- the Ubuntuzilla installer rewrites the /user/bin/Thunderbird script to point to itself, but unless I did something wrong, Jolicloud continued to launch 2.x, so I removed it.

I may get tired of the iPod/iTouch like desktop system.  But, one of the things KDE 4 has taught me is to appreciate multiple uses of the desktop space.  My various linux desktops have always offered multiple desktops, but I never used them for much.  I used to toss a lot of stuff on the desktop, that just made a cluttered mess, but I put all my actual launcher on tiny panels on the four sides of the screen.  With Plasma, the desktop is treated basically as a folder, so I pretty much quit using it altogether -- and began putting plasma widgets on the desktop.  In the 4.4 iteration, I liked the ability to have different desktop "activities" -- such as an ordinary file view with some weather widgets/another activity with status monitors/another with newsreaders and the like and ... a last, launcher activity that in many respects is just like Jolicloud, sort of.

But ... different in this respect.  For some reason, the launcher activity in my KDE 4.4 installs has always run like it was working in a ether of molasses.  IE, to slow to use.  Whereas, Jolicloud is very fast.

And, as documented here, I've always had difficulties with KDE 4.  Early on I created a number of hybrid desktops (running on IceWM) and more recently I've been using LXDE.

It may be possible to install and run different desktops from the login in Jolicloud, just as in OpSu and Ubuntu.  Don't know yet.  But, I did use the login manager to achieve a couple of things:  (1) I put the various login screens in rotation, just for entertainment; and (2) I put a timed auto login.

For some reason, OpSu had removed the timed auto login option some time ago, at least in the KDE version.  Don't know why.  I don't like straight autologin because when the desktop becomes borked, it is very annoying to intercept the login process to get to a root login or terminal shell in order to [try to] fix whatever it is that has gone wrong.  Whereas, with a timed auto login, you have 20 secs. or whatever to stop the process.

So ... wow! A lot of cool features happening.  Now, if I could only get iFolders to install.  There is a Ubuntu FAQ, but it is by its own account, not for the timid.

Next up, I guess ... I have everything else I need for daily computering running on this Jolicloud install.

And I would have to say, its nicely optimized.  To have this elderly desktop e-Machine running at -- to my perception --speeds equal to my newest computer is awesome!!!  (And strangely enough, I think faster than my OpSu installs on faster hardware.)

May have to try Jolicloud out on my music server, which is another elderly computer that could use a speed up tweak.  Jolicloud does have banshee in its app list ...

BTW -- if using jolicloud, you may wanted to add the "restricted" packages via Synaptics.  Ok, I'm not much help on this because I don't remember which package it is.  I noticed my screen was looking a bit -- well, missing MS style Fonts.  So, typically in OpSu you have run the MSfonts downloader.  So, I did a search for "fonts" in Synaptics, and down near the bottom I found something that seems to me was "ubuntu-restricted-packages" or the like.  This adds LAME support for mp3s, MS style fonts and some other things I immediately forgot about.  YMMV.