Netbooks, entry 7, What Software to Use?

My Acer One came with MS Works, but it has self-promotional advertising that uses up some of the valuable screen space. To get rid of the advertising you have to pay extra. The Acer also came with a 6o day trail of MS Office. I uninstalled both and downloaded OpenOffice instead. For what I want to do OpenOffice is just as good and it's free.

I also installed Mozilla Firefox, which is a safer and more efficient browser (at least according to my local sources). The Acer came with Outlook Express, but if your email is strictly Internet-based (Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, and the like) you won't need it. But if you want to upload and download your email via pop3/smtp then you will want to use OE. Especially if you would like to be able to compose or read downloaded emails when you are out of wireless range. Or you could download some other email client program.

The Acer comes with a program called e-Sobi v 2, which claims to combine three Internet tools; search, news reader, and an Info Library. e-Sobi is not a product I'm familiar with so you'll have to read their site or others to determine how useful it could be to you.

Windows Messenger also comes loaded but I’m a fan of Google Talk so that‘s what I replaced it with.

The Acer also comes with Windows Media Player. Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Reader 9, and McAfee security (which I prefer over Norton anyway). Some of the usual games and accessories that come with Windows XP are on the netbook, such as calculator, solitaire, notepad, fax, remote access, and others. You can also get a netbook running Linix instead and people have tested Mac OS X on netbooks.

Keep in mind that the netbook is an Internet tool and it's main purpose is to enable you to connect to the Internet and utilize Internet-based services. Your tools and your storage should be on the net. One such service is Carbonite, a online backup service, a 30 day trial comes with the Acer. My first experience with it, to do my initial backup, was easy to complete.

Related links:

• 10 Ways to Trick Out Your Netbook


• Cloud Computing - Get Used to the Term


• E-mail Client


• Email Software: Email Clients and Email Related Software


• Esobi - from Wikipedia


• eSobi, your Personal Global News Center Chosen by Acer on all Windows-Based PCs


• Recommended software for netbooks - from forum at NetbookReview.com

Netbooks, entry 6 - Not for Gaming

If you want to play high graphic games then this is not the computer for you. Although there are gamers who’ve tried and some have posted what their results have been. Given the small screen, touchpad, and mouse toggle you’d need a add at least a better mouse for serious gaming. But to me adding accessories defeats the purpose of carrying a netbook. If you can’t travel from home without your favorite high-graphics game then check to see what other players are saying about playing your game on the various netbooks. You may want to go with a regular laptop instead.

Related links:

• 12 great games that run on a Windows netbook
• Acer Aspire One Games List - for those running Linux
• Acer Aspire One User Forum
• Games that work on a netbook
• [H]ard[F]orum - forum comments about what games they've tried on their Acer Aspire One netbooks
• Netbook Games List - for an Acer Aspire One
• NotebookReview.com - "Any older games that would work on my Acer Aspire One?"
• Steam - source for downloading games.

See my comments about software in my next post.

Netbooks

My next few posts are going to be about netbooks. You may well ask why, since this isn’t usually a blog about computers. However, I do like to talk about any object that’s “less” but lets me do more.

In the case of netbooks it’s a device that lets us travel lighter. Just as you might weed and downsize your home you’d also love to cart around less when you travel. If you must have a computer, and most of what you do uses the Internet, then a netbook is one way to go. Especially given the extra charges for any luggage carried by the airlines.