The Litl in conventional laptop mode and in easel mode

I have a love/hate relationship with computers. Or more properly, I love computing and hate general-purpose computers. Supposedly modern operating systems — Windows, OSX, Linux — are far too complex for the average user let alone novices. Collectively they’re responsible for wasting more human time, energy, money and ingenuity than anything in the history of civilisation. Even Facebook. A plague on all their houses.

While most users can get their machines started up and find their way somehow to the internet (generally by double-clicking the big blue “E”), most administration tasks leave them stumped. Installing, upgrading and removing software. Managing drivers and plugins. Adding new hardware. Connecting to a new ISP or wifi hotspot. Virus checking. Backups. I doubt that more than 10% of home computer users really have their systems in order and know how to do all of these things competently.

So when I see the new Digital Inclusion Task Force (it’s a UK thing, international readers) announce that there are 10 million people in the UK that have never used the internet, not only does it not surprise me but I worry that it’s a precursor to a misguided, expensive and ultimately futile attempt to get those people online with conventional, general-purpose computers. I think that would be a mistake, because such things are horribly, unnecessarily complicated if all you want to do is get online.

For this and other reasons I’m very pleased to see the launch of the Litl, though currently they appear only to be selling in the US at present. The Litl styles itself as a “webbook” and aims to massively simplify basic, everyday computing.

Almost as good as a real kitchen timer and only $690 more expensive

In many ways it’s a similar concept to the forthcoming Google Chrome OS but it runs on its own custom, simplified hardware. You get what appears at first sight to be a conventional laptop with a 12-inch widescreen. It’s not a touchscreen, so all interaction is done with the keyboard and mouse. There’s also an optional basic remote control.

In many ways the Litl is defined as much by what it doesn’t have as by what it does. Unlike a netbook, the Litl is designed to be permanently connected to the internet. There’s no hard drive, just a small 2GB internal flash card that stores programs and a temporary data cache. The full hardware spec is here. All persistent user file storage happens online — in the “cloud” — and is completely transparent to the user. This arrangement completely eliminates the need for backups. It also makes it possible for users with multiple Litls to sync them together simply by connecting them to the same online account.

There’s also no optical drive. I’ve no idea whether you can install extra software but if you can presumably it’ll be coming from an online app store rather than a DVD or a conventional installer package.

Most importantly, there’s no conventional Windows, Linux or (obviously) OSX installation. It runs a heavily customised version of Ubuntu Linux but don’t expect to find a GNOME or KDE desktop or a terminal window.

The home screen is a set of thumbnail "cards" -- no menus or icons here

The custom Litl OS starts by presenting a home screen of “cards” — large icons representing websites, apps and “channels” (persistent mini-apps). This is much more similar to the iPhone’s home screen of icons than Windows’ start menu, OSX’s dock plus Applications folder and Linux’s start menu lookalikes. As with the iPhone, a card can simply be a web bookmark. In fact, this is the only native way to store bookmarks on the system. If you want anything more sophisticated you’ll have to use an online bookmark app such as Delicious.

There’s also a search box at the top of the screen which defaults to Google.

So from power up you’re just one click away from your favourite websites and immediately able to search the web without opening a single menu or app.

This approach is both obvious and brilliant. No other OS does this, yet how many people do anything other than open their browser when they first start their computer? While  in other OS’s you can configure your browser to start automatically, almost no-one does. Most of us hunt through an icon-cluttered desktop, menu or dock. The Litl treats the web as the main event, not just one of the many things you can do with your computer but very often won’t.

And this reflects the overall Litl philosophy — concentrate on the essentials and forget the rest. That makes it far less versatile than a general purpose computer but also far easier to use and maintain. In fact, having done as much research on this machine as possible without actually getting my grubby mitts on one I’m not sure what kind of maintenance it’d actually be possible to do. All software updates are delivered automatically without asking or even notifying the user (why would they care?) As mentioned above, there’s no need for backups or any kind of conventional filesystem that might require organisation. You’ll need to select your wifi network and type your password for it when you first set it up but that’s about it.

The general response online from techies to the Litl has been lukewarm but then it’s not for them. Yes, you can get a more powerful and versatile computer for much less (Litl retails at $700). But I doubt you can get anything that has the same combination of simplicity and functionality. The nearest thing to it is probably the iPod Touch but that’s stretching it a very long way. The Litl really is in a class of its own.

If everyone can use one, everyone will want one

While Litl seem to be marketing the device as a “lifestyle” product to the kind of urbane, affluent families in their promo photography (think one Litl per member of the household, plus a couple of spares for guests), I think it’d be absolutely great for first-time computer and internet users. Whether that’s younger children, older people who retired before computers made it into the workplace or anyone else that’s somehow missed out, getting those people online should be about the opportunities that the internet offers, not the curse of owning and babysitting a fussy, fragile, high-maintenance computer.

If you can’t use a Litl you definitely won’t be able to manage Windows. If some of those new Litl users eventually “graduate” to Windows or another full OS, that’s great. And if they’re happy sticking to the Litl, that’s great too. If there aren’t rows of Litls in public libraries, schools and community centres across the country in the next year or two we’ll definitely have missed a great opportunity to get many people online that otherwise would have found it too difficult.

And wouldn’t it be greater still if the mainstream OS vendors devoted more time to simplifying their cranky, bloated systems so that the rest of us can have more power without paying the price of complexity?