The netbook is not same as the desktop or even a regular laptop. The processing power and other resources available in a netbook is considerably less and to make best use of them it is necessary to use alternative software options.

I went through a lot of computer forums and after reading comments from a lot of netbook reviews, I found the following softwares to be popular choices.

Office Applications

There was no second opinion that Open Office is the best choice for regular office applications like word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, etc. It uses very little resources and has some netbook friendly features like the ability to switch among the document, spreadsheet, and presentation programs within a single interface, and a zoom scroll bar to enlarge text.

I will prefer to stick to MS Office on my desktop and at work. But, Open Office on my netbook allows me to keep working on my documents without hogging system resources.

Download Open Office

PDF Reader

Foxit Reader is one of the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat Reader. Foxit becomes a better choice in the netbook scenario because it is light weight, lesser resource hungry and faster.

Download Foxit Reader

Browser

Google Chrome is the most popular choice for browser among netbook users for its better memory management ability. However, I preferred to stick to Firefox as I was so used to it.

Here is a comic book explanation of why you should Google Chrome as your browser from Google itself.

Download Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox

Media Player

There are a lot of options available. VLC Media Player is a powerful tool that can play all popular formats and with ease.

Download VLC Media Player

Graphics Editor

Paint .Net is a wonderful graphics editing tool. It does not have the frills of Photoshop.  Netbooks are not made for heavy graphics work. It has a intuitive interface that supports layers, special effects and has a lot of editing tools. Featuring an intuitive interface, the program supports layers, special effects, and tons of editing tools. One great feature is that multiple images are centralized in one interface, so you don’t have to manage lots of open windows. Image resizing and basic editing jobs can be handled with ease.

Download Paint.Net

Anti-Virus

Netbooks are made for mobile browsing. On the road, we plug in USB drives and all this makes netbooks extremely susceptible to virus, spyware, etc. This makes using a AntiVirus mandatory. AVG Antivirus Free is my choice. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 protects your Windows system against adware, identity theft, spyware, and most viruses.

Download AVG Antivirus

Avast Free edition is also equally good if not better. I will prefer to stay away from Norton or McAfee AV.

Download Avast Antivirus

Photo Management

Picasa is another Google solution that is a winner in the view of netbook users. Not only does it let you manage your photos on your hard drive, but Picasa 3 also syncs well with its online counterpart, Picasa Web Album. So, by using this software, you actually have both desktop and online photo management software for your netbook.

Download Picasa

As you see, all these softwares are freewares also. All the more reason to choose them for your netbook.