Small Business

The Netbook Diaries 2009 (Part 1): Getting Ready for the Road

By Rick Broida

Updated on: November 9, 2009 / 11:57 AM EST / MoneyWatch

Last year I wrote a series of posts called The Netbook Diaries, in which I chronicled my experiences with a then-uncommon Acer Aspire One.

What a difference a year makes. Netbooks have become as commonplace as, well, notebooks, and the latest models offer more features at even lower prices.

So, as I prepare to jet off to San Francisco for three days, I'm packing a three-pound netbook instead of a seven-pound laptop.

My travel companion this time out: the MSI Wind U115 Hybrid. Its noteworthy features include a 10.1-inch screen, 9-cell battery, and dual hard drives: one SSD, one SATA. The former houses Windows XP; the latter is intended for your apps and data.

To get myself road-ready, I needed three essential tools:

ThinkFree Mobile Netbook Edition Some kind of office suite is essential for most travelers. I like Office 2007, but no way am I paying for another license. OpenOffice would work, but I consider it overkill for a netbook. ThinkFree Mobile Netbook Edition is a slim but full-featured office suite that's just about ideal, and it's currently on sale for a very reasonable $24.95 (after applying coupon code THINKFREE).
Windows Live Sync I've used this for years to keep my documents in sync between PCs. It runs on my desktop and whatever portable I happen to be using. No messing around with copying files back and forth; Live Sync automatically keeps everything up to date on two or more machines.
Xmarks Formerly Foxmarks, this indispensable Firefox plug-in (which is now available for Internet Explorer as well) syncs my bookmarks and passwords.

That's it for this entry. Stay tuned to find out what's great about traveling with a netbook, what's not so great, and critical features to look for if you're shopping for one.