OK, maybe “hate” is too strong.

I don’t understand Windows.

I didn’t bring the Macbook to work today as I have plans with @oakmonster this evening, didn’t feel like dragging another 2.5kg along with me. So I took the Netbook to work. However, when I turned it on this morning I was greeted with a Blue Screen of Death, flashing at me about some corruption in Windows Registry. I don’t know what caused it. I was just using it last night. There’s no real explanation on why this happens (which is apparently common for XP) and no real permanent solution but wiping your PC clean.

And that’s what I did. Glad Samsung comes with a Recovery Solution or I would have to drag my pretty self to either Fortune/Pantip this afternoon and I don’t feel like battling with IT geeks today.

It’s not too bad wiping the Netbook. All my files are stored on either Dropbox or Google Docs so I don’t really have much to scream about…

..except that I have to reinstall all the programs in the awesome Netbook-friendly collection I have tediously built over the last few months since I bought this baby.

My Netbook is (was) almost completely void of all Microsoft programs except the Windows itself. They lag, they crash and they are confusingly stupid.

I was just tweeting about the reinstallation frustration when I got a tweet from @stephietan saying that she actually appreciates my rant as now she knows what programs are good for her netbook.

So I got an idea. Why not blog about what I need to have on my Netbook? Not only that it’s useful for others, it’s also useful for me as I am sure this won’t be the last time I have to rebuild my collection from scratch.

(Mind you: I based all of my selections on the Mac experience that I miss. You don’t really need Minimal theme for your Chrome or an application dock. They just help me cope with using Windows better.)

So Stephie, I dedicate this post to you and all other Mac lovers who have to succumb to Windows for professional reasons.

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Google Chrome: First and foremost as you need a fast and reliable browser to download heaps of programs later. And why Chrome? It’s lightweight so it’s netbook-friendly. If you think you’re gonna miss your favorite Firefox extensions then stick with Firefox. I just prefer this.

OpenOffice: Well first you uninstall the memory-eating Windows Office Suite. If you have the legit one that came with Windows, they’re not full-licence anyway so what’s the damn point? The new Windows Office programs are also so damn confusing, god knows which button is where. OpenOffice is free, supports most document formats, even the puzzling .docx.

An Anti-virus Software: I use two actually for my own peace of mind. The open-source AVG and Microsoft’s new and free Security Essentials.

DropBox: I cannot live without DropBox. It’s on my Mac, it’s on my iPhone and now it has to be on the netbook for my life to perfectly work out. It’s a virtual storage, comes with free 2GB and more if you can refer more people. You can access your files on the browser, or like what I’m doing, downloading it and a DropBox folder will be nicely lodged in your My Documents as another folder. And it updates all your DropBox points whenever you add/edit a file.

FoxIt Reader: OK I could use Adobe Reader, it’s free I know but it’s heavy and takes forever to load a PDF with my 1.6 processor. FoxIt is lighter and can do the same job.

Digsby: It’s IM and it’s Social Networking tools. Meaning you can have Google Chat, MSN, *and* Twitter on the same program. I haven’t yet found the right Twitter app for Windows, and those Adobe Air ones (Seesmic, TweetDeck) are too heavy. So I’m sticking to this.

Picasa: Even though I’m not really planning to use the netbook for heavy image editing, it’s just nice to know at least I have some form of image editor on it. It can also organize photos, upload to Flickr/Facebook, and it works with the netbook webcam so it’s the closest thing to Photobooth greatness on this machine.

Thunderbird and Sunbird: I know Google is all “cloud” now but seriously, you still need to do things locally. And these put Google’s finest on your netbook. Thunderbird is email and Sunbird is calendar. But with Provider and Lighting extensions, you’ll only need to use Thunderbird in the end.

7-Zip: WinZip only does .zip, WinRar only does. rar. This one does both for free.

VLC: The ultimate media player. Period.

And something to make me feel like home…

ObjectDock: Works just like the Dock on Mac, you pin your programs here, it even maximizes on mouseover and jumps when it’s opening.

———-

As I was writing that I was reinstalling everything at the same time and it took me half a day to finish doing them all, thanks to Windows’ peculiar policy of needing to reboot your computer almost every time you install/uninstall things.

And no I still don’t know WTF was wrong with my computer this morning.

Maybe it’s time for Linux?