Some of the formats that VLC support are:

3GP,[17] ASF, AVI, FLV, MKV, Musical Instrument Digital Interface (.mid/.midi),[18] QuickTime, MP4, Ogg, OGM, WAV, MPEG-2 (ES, PS, TS, PVA, MP3), AIFF, Raw audio, Raw DV, MXF, VOB.
Video formats, Cinepak, Dirac, DV, H.263, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, HuffYUV, Indeo 3,[19] MJPEG, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 Part 2, RealVideo 3&4[20], Sorenson (thus enabling direct playback of the modified Sorenson H.263 encoded videos downloaded from YouTube), Theora, VC-1,[21] VP5,[21] VP6,[21] WMV, AAC, AC3, ALAC, AMR,[17] DTS, DV Audio, XM, FLAC, MACE, Mod, MP3, PLS, QDM2/QDMC, RealAudio,[23] Speex, Screamtracker 3/S3M, TTA, Vorbis, WavPack,[24] WMA.

the program also works amazingly well on a netbook, because it is so lightweight and it uses minimal system resources.  The full package is just over 17MB, and is distributed as Open Source software, so you can also download and compile your own copy, if you want.

The FREE Windows version can be downloaded from here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

One of the biggest downfalls to having a netbook, or a small laptop computer is having a small amount of screen real estate.  Plus with it being a NETbook is does spend a lot of it's time online online, so an ideal app would be one that solves these issues.

Well that's one (of the many) great features of the Google Chrome web browser.  It has taken the idea of browser tabs and pushed them up into the title bar, plus made it's address bar into a single bar and also included your nav buttons and your menu system.  Also, the status bar (at the bottom) is hidden, unless it is in use.

One of the other great features of this browser is that it is very very fast.  The initial program loading time is less than half the time it takes to load Mozilla Firefox, and the page loading time is faster than BOTH Firefox and Internet Explorer.  See this CNET article for more information.

It's a fast and compact browser that is free to download and works better than it's counterparts.  You can't go wrong!

Google Chrome is available for download from: http://www.google.com/chrome

GSView is a free frontend to the GhostScript application that it's original intention was reading Postscript files, but has evolved GhostScript into a full featured PDF viewer that is incredibly fast. The typical load times for the application ar a second or 2, and even loading a large - graphically rich - file loaded in a third the time Adobe Acrobat Reader took to load. It even beat Foxit Reader, which is another free PDF reader that is designed to be a more lightweight alternative to Adobe.

To install the reader, you must first install the Ghostscript application (http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/GPL/gs864/gs864w32.exe for MS Windows) and then install the GSView application (http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/ghostgum/gsv49w32.exe also for MS Windows).

A great (and fast) program to get the best out of your netbook!

OpenOffice.org Logo

OpenOffice.org is an Open Source and FREE software suite that is designed as an alternative to Microsoft Office.  It has components that are able to read Excel, Word, Powerpoint and more.  It is very easy to install, easy to use and is very reliable.

The sub-programs that are included are: Writer (Word Processor), Calc (Spreadsheets), Impress (Presentations), Draw (Drawing), Base (Databases). All of which have the ability to use their own open formats, or you can create, edit and save documents in many other formats, such as Microsoft Office and many other common formats.

Another exciting feature of OpenOffice.org is that it has the built-in option to export your document to a PDF, or Adobe Acrobat file.  This is a great way to share a document with anyone and have the peace of mind that it won't be changed in any way.

There is an installable version of the software (main version) and a portable version has also been created. The portable version allows you to run the software without being installed.  This can be beneficial if you want to save a little space on your SSD and run the program off a flash drive, or your built in memory card slot.

The full install version of the application can be downloaded from: http://download.openoffice.org/.

The portable version (for memory card or flash drive install) is available at: http://portableapps.com/apps/office/openoffice_portable.

Dropbox is a Cloud based file synchronization service that will keep a folder on your desktop (or desktops) in sync with the website.  The service all works seamlessly, as long as you have the program running in your system tray.

It allows you to backup 2GB worth of data while under the free plan, and has various paid options to meet the needs of larger file limits.  2GB is definitely enough for documents and possibly a small amount of music.

It also works on Windows, Linux or Mac OS operating systems so it is something that can be utilized by anyone.  This is something I would like to see a mobile platform created, for Blackberry or Android to be able to have access to those files anywhere.

To start using Dropbox visit: http://www.getdropbox.com/