
Image via Wikipedia
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)