I discovered JoliCloud back in 2010 while looking for an alternative to the Windows XP that came pre-installed on a fairly under-powered ASUS "netbook." It worked out pretty nicely -- the OS was a gloss on Debian Linux, optimized for netbook uses (discovering and installing stuff from the web, keeping files in the cloud via Dropbox, etc.).
Joli has evolved more and more into a "cloud OS" over the years, while forking itself into a useful web-based personal organization. I haven't tested its latest downloadable/installable version, but the beta of the latest web version, JoliDrive, is actually my Chromebook/Chromebox home page and I'm using it quite a bit, if only to access my YouTube favorites and so forth.
Within JoliDrive, I have two dashboards: One for all my cloud storage/sync services (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, MediaFire, SugarSync, etc.), another for various popular web services, especially social networking stuff (Facebook, Google+, etc.), news feeds and so forth.
I may try the downloadable "full OS" version again some time soon (maybe I'll dig that old netbook out for it), but frankly I'm very happy with ChromeOS. People who still don't "trust the cloud" very much might benefit from JoliDrive. Manage your social networking presence from there, and experiment with the cloud storage stuff -- when you're ready to really dive into the cloud, you'll already have your stuff organized.
Showing posts with label Google Drive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Drive. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Friday, April 27, 2012
Meanwhile, Elsewhere in Sync-Land ...
Just got my Google Drive. Unlike Dropbox, its downloadable sync software doesn't support MacOS 10.5.x (Leopard). Only 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or higher. Which makes it considerably less exciting.
On the sunny side, just having it prompted me to finally get around to cleaning up my Google Docs hoard. Had stuff in there that I hadn't looked at (for good reason) in years.
Addenda, instead of a new post:
April 28: David Murphy at PC Magazine lists the service's "six substantial slip-ups." The big one for me, already mentioned above but I'm gonna elaborate anyway, is "cross-platform support."
Yes, I know it's silly to whine about newer programs not supporting your older OS, but in the case of sync software, the further back it reaches the better, because one great use for it is making it easy to port important files from old machines to new ones.
Google Drive apparently supports Windows all the way back to XP, which was released in 2001, but only covers MacOS X back to Snow Leopard (10.6.x), which was released in 2009. I'm running Leopard (10.5.x), which only dates back to 2007, and can't use Google Drive to sync.
Linux? Per PC World, Google says it's on the way due to considerable and semi-organized bellyaching ...
But hey, Dropbox already has me covered on both both my Leopard Mac Mini and my Linux laptop. Maybe even my Android tablet (Dropbox needs 2.1; I may be stuck at 2.0), if it survived the hailstorm we just had. I left it in the tent this morning, but we took a pounding -- the television guy says baseball sized, but it looked closer to golf ball sized to me.
So anyway, I'm glad to have another five gigs of online storage available, but I just don't see using anything but Dropbox for syncing, at least as long as they continue to offer a wider range of support for OSes/versions.
On the sunny side, just having it prompted me to finally get around to cleaning up my Google Docs hoard. Had stuff in there that I hadn't looked at (for good reason) in years.
Addenda, instead of a new post:
April 28: David Murphy at PC Magazine lists the service's "six substantial slip-ups." The big one for me, already mentioned above but I'm gonna elaborate anyway, is "cross-platform support."
Yes, I know it's silly to whine about newer programs not supporting your older OS, but in the case of sync software, the further back it reaches the better, because one great use for it is making it easy to port important files from old machines to new ones.
Google Drive apparently supports Windows all the way back to XP, which was released in 2001, but only covers MacOS X back to Snow Leopard (10.6.x), which was released in 2009. I'm running Leopard (10.5.x), which only dates back to 2007, and can't use Google Drive to sync.
Linux? Per PC World, Google says it's on the way due to considerable and semi-organized bellyaching ...
But hey, Dropbox already has me covered on both both my Leopard Mac Mini and my Linux laptop. Maybe even my Android tablet (Dropbox needs 2.1; I may be stuck at 2.0), if it survived the hailstorm we just had. I left it in the tent this morning, but we took a pounding -- the television guy says baseball sized, but it looked closer to golf ball sized to me.
So anyway, I'm glad to have another five gigs of online storage available, but I just don't see using anything but Dropbox for syncing, at least as long as they continue to offer a wider range of support for OSes/versions.
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