How India uses the internet [infographic]
Chartered Accountant, Technophile, IT consultant, web 2.0 enthusiast, Mobile technology fan, Travels to drive,
Loves Life and lives every moment...
We know what we are, but know not what we may be...
The latest news doing its rounds on the internet is the futuristic looking, theme mockups of the Mozilla Firefox 4 browser. The new theme reminds me of the minimalistic feel adopted by both Chrome and IE8. The wiki states the mock ups are only for brainstorming and might be revised several times before they make it to real browser arena..
I got myself a new ASUS EEE PC Seashell netbook last week and have been busy setting it up, customizing it and getting software. Considering that a netbook is meant to run more as an secondary system rather than your only laptop, netbooks are not usually as powerful as laptop (why is why they're called netbooks, duh..)
Even though they're called netbooks , its not exactly possible to ensure that they're always connected to the internet. What if the friendly neighborhood cafe did not have free wifi? And Netbooks without the power of the net are well, just books. Or so we have been lead to believe. Until the making this list that is. My list of perfect software had to make sure it fulfilled two primary needs. Firstly, to be able to run on a machine with limited processing abilities. Secondly, the capability to be used even when you did not have internet access.
Browser: Chrome
Chrome had to be the browser of choice. Light, fast and easy to load. I still am a fan of firefox on my laptop but for my netbook I chose the ultra light chrome with the power of Google Gears. That makes sure I can read my feeds offline, my mail offline, my blog and loads of other Gears compatible stuff offline.
Edited on July 17, 2009: Firefox takes over my netbook. Its impossible not to use firefox especially considering that the internet is the center of your netbook. Plus the font rendering on firefox is much more adaptable to netbooks, which means its much more comfortable to browse the web.
Mail: Thunderbird
I couldn't find a better mail client than this so I had to surrender to the power of Mozilla. Handles multiple inboxes, junk/spam protection, easy to use. Just like all other good Mozilla products you get the power to use extensions just make sure that you are making an application heavier on a netbook. I just have the minimize to tray extension installed.
Chat: Pidgin
This open source chat agent had to take the cake when it came to chat. Lets me run multiple IM services, light and powerful. Though originally designed to run on linux, Pidgin is now available for windows as well. Pidgin is functional, has an interface that's the least distracting and comes with a multitude of options to customize it. I use gtalk considering that its the lightest around, considering I do not need multiple IM support.
Office applications: Microsoft Works
I still am using the Microsoft works, but this section might update once I install the Open office. Still considering this section, so do leave your choices in the comments section.
Blogging: Blogdesk
For the first time, I've considered the use of an offline blogging tool and after trying quite a few of them, I've decided that Blogdesk, albeit its limitations is the winner. Blogdesk has support for most common blogging platforms. I would have recommended the use of Scribefire extension if I were using firefox, but since this is a list, Blogdesk is a blogging tool with a functional interface, but lets you write blogs offline, save them and post them later.
Antivirus: AVG
This is really easy. You would want to keep the resource usage to a minimum and still ensure protection. Stick to AVG . Does a good job and is light on the processor as well.
Desktop enhancements: Launchy
Well, just because its a netbook doesn't mean you shouldn't dress up your desktop. How about a OSX styled dock? Rocketdock is only of the fastest and lightest docks out there. I would recommend using Launchy , the keyboard based program launcher especially since it works wonders when the super fast chrome is your default browser.
Trying out blogdesk, an offline blog editor. I usually tend to blog from the WP interface or from scribefire. But now trying out an offline blog editor, just so that I can blog offline and then sync it back whenever I get an internet connection.
That lets me enjoy a coffee at any cafe (no more dependance on wifi!) and blog at the same time! I tried out blogdesk and found it really useful especially on long flights, airport waits (esp. at airports which have exclusive tie ups with specific internet providers)
The latest version of your Firefox is now out! I've been using firefox ever since it was pheonix and I never had complaints. So I guess I wouldn't come up with any right now! Firefox 3.5 makes browsing faster. And adds a lot of minor/major functionality tweaks. Makes the awesome bar, even more awesome, and Introduces private browsing at last. But you could wait until all your extensions get upgraded. But most developers have already updated their extensions and you shouldn't be surprised if most of your popular extensions would move up the upgrade ladder without much trouble. Site rendering &performance has improved a lot. Read all about their performance upgrades here! Go here for a complete list of top features. Click on help > Check for updates on your firefox browser. Or use the link below.
Geek Chart shows you where you shares most of the content. You can find thunderror's shared content on twitter, stumbleupon, delicious and loads of other web2.0 sites. Geek chart currently supports a select few of these popular sites and makes a pie chart showing where you share the most and the least. Not surprisingly, twitter comes tops my share list. Try out your geek chart and let us know where you share...Just sign up and surrender your usernames with the most popular social share sites. Thunderror's Geek Chart
