• Tweet

Jolicloud founder Tariq Krim has confirmed that a netbook bearing the Jolicloud name, and presumably running the company’s custom Linux operating system is in the works. Today Krim shared a few photos on Twitter, showing the netbook and the box it will likely come in.

Krim wouldn’t give me any information about the netbook specs, price, or launch date, but he did say the Jolicloud netbook “is real” and more details will be availble soon.

The Jolicloud operating system is based on Ubuntu Linux, but what sets it apart is the custom user interface which blurs the distinction between desktop and web apps. You can “install” Facebook, Twitter, or Gmail just as easily as OpenOffice.org, VLC, or GIMP. Installing web apps will add an icon to your program launcher which you can use to open the web apps.

There’s also a social element, allowing you to share your installed apps with friends that also use Jolicloud — and making it easy for you to find cool new apps that your friends are using.

The Jolicloud user interface is coded in HTML5 and your settings are saved to the cloud, allowing you to login to your account and manage your settings from any computer.

Of course, you don’t need to buy a Jolicloud netbook to use the operating system. It’s available as a free download for anyone who wants to install it on existing hardware. Jolicloud is designed to support most current netbook hardware including NVIDIA ION graphics and the Broadcom Crystal HD video accelerator.

You can check out a few more images after the break.