Help me load out my new travel machine.

June 18, 2009 1:20 PM

I just got a HP Mini 2140 HD. Other than the standard productivity software, can anyone who has this or something similar recommend decent software that will run well on it?

Games, entertainment, editing (video/audio) and whatnot accepted. It's going to be a strictly "travel-only" machine so I don't have to haul my 17" laptop all over when I'm overseas for weeks at a time. I've already got Skype, VLC and the typical Office stuff on, but any other suggestions or anecdotes from current owners would be great. Thanks!

Btw, it's the XP version with 2gigs of Ram and the 160gig drive and the 1366x768 screen.

posted by damiano99 to computers & internet (3 comments total)

YMMV, but I found Chrome to be a good browser for my netbook. Very quick, and pretty good about screen real estate. You could also try Firefox with one of the "tiny browser" extensions.
posted by rossination at 1:40 PM on June 18

Dropbox for file syncing between computers and Evernote for note taking, also synchronized.

Peggle.

Firefox with Classic Compact theme and Classic Compact Options addon.

Virtual CloneDrive for cd/dvd-drive emulation.
posted by Memo at 2:12 PM on June 18

I have a Mini 2140 HD (and am actually on it right now). I have to second the suggestion for Chrome. I am a die-hard firefox user on my desktop, but the maximization of screen space and speed of Chrome can't be beat.

I would recommend you also pick up Foobar2000 to play music. It is very lightweight and can handle even gargantuan libraries without the slowdown you would see with programs like iTunes.

I also have DoPDF installed, to print receipts and stuff to pdf. This is probably the quickest and most reliable pdf converter-as-a-printer-driver I've come across
posted by grandsham at 12:58 PM on June 19