I got myself a new ASUS EEE PC Seashell netbook last week and have been busy setting it up, customizing it and getting software. Considering that a netbook is meant to run more as an secondary system rather than your only laptop, netbooks are not usually as powerful as laptop (why is why they’re called netbooks, duh..)

Even though they’re called netbooks , its not exactly possible to ensure that they’re always connected to the internet. What if the friendly neighborhood cafe did not have free wifi? And Netbooks without the power of the net are well, just books. Or so we have been lead to believe. Until the making this list that is. My list of perfect software had to make sure it fulfilled two primary needs. Firstly, to be able to run on a machine with limited processing abilities. Secondly, the capability to be used even when you did not have internet access.

Browser: Chrome

Chrome had to be the browser of choice. Light, fast and easy to load. I still am a fan of firefox on my laptop but for my netbook I chose the ultra light chrome with the power of Google Gears. That makes sure I can read my feeds offline, my mail offline, my blog and loads of other Gears compatible stuff offline.

Edited on July 17, 2009: Firefox takes over my netbook. Its impossible not to use firefox especially considering that the internet is the center of your netbook. Plus the font rendering on firefox is much more adaptable to netbooks, which means its much more comfortable to browse the web.

Mail: Thunderbird

I couldn’t find a better mail client than this so I had to surrender to the power of Mozilla. Handles multiple inboxes, junk/spam protection, easy to use. Just like all other good Mozilla products you get the power to use extensions just make sure that you are making an application heavier on a netbook. I just have the minimize to tray extension installed.

Chat: Pidgin

This open source chat agent had to take the cake when it came to chat. Lets me run multiple IM services, light and powerful. Though originally designed to run on linux, Pidgin is now available for windows as well. Pidgin is functional, has an interface that’s the least distracting and comes with a multitude of options to customize it. I use gtalk considering that its the lightest around, considering I do not need multiple IM support.

Office applications: Microsoft Works

I still am using the Microsoft works, but this section might update once I install the Open office. Still considering this section, so do leave your choices in the comments section.

Blogging: Blogdesk

For the first time, I’ve considered the use of an offline blogging tool and after trying quite a few of them, I’ve decided that Blogdesk, albeit its limitations is the winner. Blogdesk has support for most common blogging platforms. I would have recommended the use of Scribefire extension if I were using firefox, but since this is a list, Blogdesk is a blogging tool with a functional interface, but lets you write blogs offline, save them and post them later.

Antivirus: AVG

This is really easy. You would want to keep the resource usage to a minimum and still ensure protection. Stick to AVG . Does a good job and is light on the processor as well.

Desktop enhancements: Launchy

Well, just because its a netbook doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dress up your desktop. How about a OSX styled dock? Rocketdock is only of the fastest and lightest docks out there. I would recommend using Launchy , the keyboard based program launcher especially since it works wonders when the super fast chrome is your default browser.

A recent survey reveals that most enterprises still love to flaunt Internet Explorer as their default browser. Most of the security updates in the organization are for IE as well. Major reasons which could be attributed to this are:

1. It is bundled with Microsoft windows.
2. Most Microsoft office applications work better with IE
3. Outlook Webaccess works better with Internet explorer
4. Microsoft sharepoint services work with Internet explorer
5. Its easier to put in admin policies for a non-open source browser
6. Other software used in the organization are dependent on Internet explorer
7. It gets updated with the windows updater
8. Its “Microsoft” Internet Explorer.
9. The admin does not know about Firefox or Chrome
10. There is so much you can do with Internet explorer
11. There are no Macs which run Safari or Firefox
12. Users have trouble learning to use any browser other than IE
13. The IT policy says so.

Let us know what you think in the comments..Should IE be the browser of choice in organizations?

I have this thing against many blogs which primarily run only on the strength of forwards which they receive. It could also be of the fact that I have always been away from the habit of forwarding these mails (Fwd: fwd: fwd: 10 facts u didnt know about life, Fwd: fwd: read this….you’ll die laughing, Fwd: fwd: very interesting….don’t miss and many many more) Another plausible explanation could be that these mails arise from the blogs that created them or is it the other way after all. I guess it is the old chicken and egg conundrum…I really despise people at office forwarding such useless information to each other. If you are really interested in sharing language

1. Share a link to the original author’s blog/page
2. Write something original of your own (and please do prevent it from becoming a forward by saying so)
3. Or best of all, blog

Forwarding mails is a way of life for many people who spent much of their office time doing it. I am not trying to be the most proper employee in the world, but then do spare a thought for the office network which has to carry all the clutter (the 1000s of photographs of cute teddybears, babies and what not). Since I am complaining about something anyway; I would rather advertise what I would recommend…Blog about something and send the person whom you want, a link (imagine the bandwidth saved – even if you forget the cost element involved)

Great. Now blogger has been blocked in office. Just in time that I switched a bit of my blogging to wordpress. Now I can’t blog till I get back home from Hyderabad; I guess this is what pushes people to send forwards. Well, then it wasn’t entirely useless that I spent so much time doing this transfer and setting up my items on wordpress and besides wordpress is good as well.

I started my own blog at the SAP network, but right now my posts are pending moderation which should happen in a few days (after all, the SAP network doesn’t let anyone blog just like that) It should be enough to satisfy my poor technological soul I guess till I get back home.

Updated: 0440 hrs 14th march 2007. My first post on the SAP network got approved and it is now an official blog. Since I cannot blog through blogger; I update via a feed to this blog.