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Earlier this week I talked about my portable office. One of the keystones of that office is the netbook I got from my family for Christmas, which is utterly awesome.

I originally just wanted something portable and lightweight to let me do some writing, web surfing, check email, and maybe read PDFs. Instead, I got a Gateway 3103u (which originally came with Vista, but I used my Christmas money to upgrade to Windows 7, which is a massive improvement in many ways). While the screen is too small and the processor too weak to do things like run InDesign and high-level video games, I’m able to get a surprising amount of power out of it, and I’m able to use a lot of free software to cover my needs. Thus far, I’m running:

Productivity

• OpenOffice 3 (office software suite)
• Bullzip PDF printer (PDF creator)
• CeltX (scriptwriting software)
• Dropbox (file sharing)
• Evernote Desktop (note sharing)
• yWriter (novel writing)

Games

• ScummVM (virtual machine to run older point-and-click adventure games)
• Torchlight
• Steam (store for purchasing games)
• Gargoyle (text adventure emulator)
• EVE Online
• Grand Theft Auto 2
• Dungeons and Dragons Online
• D&D Character Builder
• Angband
• Planet M.U.L.E.
• NetHack

Internet

• Firefox (browser)
• TweetDeck (Twitter/Facebook)
• Pidgin (multi-service IM)
• iTunes (podcasts and audiobooks)
• Skype (voice chat)
• Filezilla (FTP client)

eBooks

• calibre (ebook reader and converter)
• FBReader (ebook reader)
• Acrobat Reader 9 (ebook reader)
• Stanza Desktop (ebook reader and converter)

Recording

• Audacity (recording software)
• FlipShare (video sharing)
• SpinXpress (client to post files to archive.org)
• Levelator (level-modulating script)