Unfortunately, I haven’t really researched a lot of Linux applications, so the applications below are geared towards users with Windows XP and above installed on their system. Importantly, users of smaller netbooks should take advantage of Portable applications, and removable storage. With extremely limited SSD drives, it’s important to keep the drive as free as possible, to enable a smoother Netbook experience.
Dorgem
Sure, there are ways to make sure that your Netbook won’t be stolen, such as Kensington Locks, or a portable alarm system, but there is another way to ensure that your Netbook is safe. The Open-source program allows a computer to detect motion via it’s webcam, and take pictures of whoever passes your computer. The most useful feature that the program possesses, is that the images taken can be uploaded to a FTP server, just in case the Netbook was stolen, or some violent crime took place in front of your laptop.
Dorgem’s official site can be found Here
Rocket Dock
Netbooks have an unfortunate problem of having an extremely small screen. Which is a bit unfortunate if you’re using a touchpad, trying to click on Firefox. But this problem can be avoided, by stealing one of Apple’s most coveted features. Yes, not Safari, not iTunes… An Object Dock.
Rocket Dock doesn’t take up too much system resources, unlike more intensive dock systems. Also, it’s customisable, and features a simple interface, as well as auto-hide, and mouse over functions. Much like Macs, just without the snobbish ‘We have Object Docks, and you don’t’ stigma that follows.
Rocket Dock’s Official site can be found Here
Firefox Portable (3.0+)
Firefox has always been a better browser than the crappy ie 8.0. But, just because you don’t have a large Hard Drive, doesn’t mean that you have to stick with an antiquated Internet Explorer 5.0. In fact, you’ll gain more space by uninstalling the useless application, and instead, replacing it on your SD card with Firefox Portable.
The program itself is around 50mb unpacked, but, of course, the primary drawcard to Firefox Portable, is it’s portabillity. Firefox comes with a variety of improvements from Internet Explorer, with a customizable links bar, an intergrated RSS feed menu… And the fact that the amount of plugins are enormous.
Some of the most important plugins have to be Firefox Proxy, and Adblocker.
Firefox Portable can be downloaded Here
VLC Portable
Ever wanted to punch a certain media file extension in the face? You don’t have to anymore, with VLC portable. Renowned as the Media player, that can basically play anything, and characterized by a classic orange traffic cone, users will be able to get rid of crappy Windows Media Player, and replace it with this awesome Open Source player instead.
The application itself is quite small regardless, standing at around 3mb for the non-portable version anyway. But with every megabyte counting for something, there’s always a way to save just a little more space. VLC portable will cut down on the amount of space spent finding Codecs, and the handy capabillity of removing WMP.
VLC Portable can be found Here
Google Docs
Pissed at Microsoft? And Openoffice? Maybe even iWork? All at the same time? Now there’s a new company to yell, scream, and blame late projects on. Google Docs has come to be either a boon, or a bane to the existance of Netbooks. Sure, you can use equivalents of Word, Excel, and the rest on your Netbook through the internet, but unfortunately… I guess that means you can’t blame it on Microsoft if your Word Processor dies now.
Instead, try blaming it on your computer suddenly resetting due to a lack of power… But then again, Google Docs has an autosave feature. Procrastinating doesn’t
seem so… easy anymore. But for users that need to save space, but work, Google Docs is your new best friend.
Google Docs can be found Here
Dorgem
Sure, there are ways to make sure that your Netbook won’t be stolen, such as Kensington Locks, or a portable alarm system, but there is another way to ensure that your Netbook is safe. The Open-source program allows a computer to detect motion via it’s webcam, and take pictures of whoever passes your computer. The most useful feature that the program possesses, is that the images taken can be uploaded to a FTP server, just in case the Netbook was stolen, or some violent crime took place in front of your laptop.
Dorgem’s official site can be found Here
Rocket Dock
Netbooks have an unfortunate problem of having an extremely small screen. Which is a bit unfortunate if you’re using a touchpad, trying to click on Firefox. But this problem can be avoided, by stealing one of Apple’s most coveted features. Yes, not Safari, not iTunes… An Object Dock.
Rocket Dock doesn’t take up too much system resources, unlike more intensive dock systems. Also, it’s customisable, and features a simple interface, as well as auto-hide, and mouse over functions. Much like Macs, just without the snobbish ‘We have Object Docks, and you don’t’ stigma that follows.
Rocket Dock’s Official site can be found Here
Firefox Portable (3.0+)
Firefox has always been a better browser than the crappy ie 8.0. But, just because you don’t have a large Hard Drive, doesn’t mean that you have to stick with an antiquated Internet Explorer 5.0. In fact, you’ll gain more space by uninstalling the useless application, and instead, replacing it on your SD card with Firefox Portable.
The program itself is around 50mb unpacked, but, of course, the primary drawcard to Firefox Portable, is it’s portabillity. Firefox comes with a variety of improvements from Internet Explorer, with a customizable links bar, an intergrated RSS feed menu… And the fact that the amount of plugins are enormous.
Some of the most important plugins have to be Firefox Proxy, and Adblocker.
Firefox Portable can be downloaded Here
VLC Portable
Ever wanted to punch a certain media file extension in the face? You don’t have to anymore, with VLC portable. Renowned as the Media player, that can basically play anything, and characterized by a classic orange traffic cone, users will be able to get rid of crappy Windows Media Player, and replace it with this awesome Open Source player instead.
The application itself is quite small regardless, standing at around 3mb for the non-portable version anyway. But with every megabyte counting for something, there’s always a way to save just a little more space. VLC portable will cut down on the amount of space spent finding Codecs, and the handy capabillity of removing WMP.
VLC Portable can be found Here
Google Docs
Pissed at Microsoft? And Openoffice? Maybe even iWork? All at the same time? Now there’s a new company to yell, scream, and blame late projects on. Google Docs has come to be either a boon, or a bane to the existance of Netbooks. Sure, you can use equivalents of Word, Excel, and the rest on your Netbook through the internet, but unfortunately… I guess that means you can’t blame it on Microsoft if your Word Processor dies now.
Instead, try blaming it on your computer suddenly resetting due to a lack of power… But then again, Google Docs has an autosave feature. Procrastinating doesn’t
seem so… easy anymore. But for users that need to save space, but work, Google Docs is your new best friend.
Google Docs can be found Here
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