Best Software for Netbooks

Home and Internet

Skype, Free

The built-in microphone and webcam on a netbook makes it an ideal teleconferencing machine – after adding Skype, of course. The gold standard in video calls is free, runs well even on very feeble systems, and you can even use it to dial out to phone numbers, in a pinch.

Digsby, Free

Control your instant messaging, e-mail notifications, and social networking from one program with Digsby, which aggregates them all under one roof. That means you can finally close all the browser windows and other little apps you were using to handle the same functions.

Google Chrome, Free

Firefox has more features, but we can’t deny that Chrome feels the quickest of all the browsers we’ve toyed with. The clean interface also lends itself very well to the tiny netbooks screens, where real estate is at a premium, and too many icons just cause clutter.

Utorrent

That U is actually a µ, as in the scientific notation for micro. And micro it is. The smallest BitTorrent client available runs from a 220KB executable and usually consumes less than 6MB of RAM, yet has some of the most advanced features you can find in a torrent client.