I can't take any credit for finding this. That all belongs to gorilla who pointed me in this direction, and great that he did too.

Jolicloud can be seen here at http://www.jolicloud.com At the moment the project is in Alpha and you have to register to get an invite to the project. They seem to be handing them out fairly quickly, I got mine within 24 hours.

Accompanying the invite is a document wtih the all-essential link to the download page where you can get a copy of the Jolicloud image file, also links to a tool to create a USB bootable install kit for Windows, OS X and Linux.

Jolicloud is based upon the Ubuntu Linux distribution, a good choice I'd say. On top of this the Jolicloud GUI is delivered. It is tailored for a Netbook screen, but I read on http://getsatisfaction.com that it also works on regular laptops, some of quite a vintage.

The thing with Jolicloud though, is not that it is simply another UI or OS. It is a web OS and relies a lot on the Jolicloud home site to get your various apps that you might want. Jolicloud have vetted a fair number already to run with your Netbook. Some are cloud apps, others run native on the Jolicloud OS itself.

Out of the box the Jolicloud OS works geat on my Samsung NC10. A large number of Netbooks are supported already and more are on the way. Although, as seen on getsatisfaction.com, it will run on devices not listed.

Its early days for the Jolicloud OS - and even earlier for me But if this is where Netbook cloud OS are going then I might just be persuaded.

NB: As the family and local PC doctor I might just find myself wiping Windows and installing Jolicloud on all of those pesky troublesome systems I have to visit several times each year