Next10: Tariq Krim talks up new version of Jolicloud based on HTML5

During his presentation at next10 today in Berlin, Jolicloud founder and CEO Tariq Krim talked up the move to HTML5 (via Google’s Chrome browser engine) and indicated that the company’s netbook OS will open up to 3rd party developers within a couple of weeks. Krim has garnered a lot of attention for the free cloud-based operating system, which recently exited beta.

To keep up with the latest industry trends, Jolicloud is in the process of moving their entire system to HTML5, which Krim describes as a “virus that will spread over all browsers and platforms”. He says it will enable the cloud to become “offline friendly” and that this represents “a major disruption in the distribution of software.”

Currently Jolicloud is working hard on making these steps happen. “We care about the experience, the choice, and your control over your data”. Krim says that Jolicloud plans to make further announcements on this topic at Google I/O, which is being held at the end of May.

Going into business with Jolicloud will enable partners to “use Google middleware with a funkier UI.” Krim’s personal mission is to fight the “closed world”, where consumers cannot take charge of the platform they use.

Since the browser is becoming the most important tool, Krim says this goes hand in hand with the trend towards netbooks. As standard size notebooks become more and more obsolete, the only two machines that are going to survive long term on the market are Mac and netbooks, says Krim.

The industry problem of scalability is not new and more and more processing power is moving to the cloud. This creates a greater than ever need for a fast rendering browser. Since the rise of consumer friendly cloud services like Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and Flickr, Jolicloud provides the easiest way to access these services, according to Krim.

Concerning questions on how Jolicloud will compete with the likes of Google’s Chrome OS and of course Windows 7, Krim says that the company is still in talks with hardware vendors who are getting tired of working with Mircosoft and are rather inclined to attempt a switch or at least offer choices when it comes to the OS.