New Laptop

I was about getting a little netbook as the family portable computer.  We are in need of an inexpensive portable computer to take with us on trips and the boat.  But wasn't really happy with the price / performance formula you get with the netbook.  The screen resolutions seem poor, the processor and memory seem slight and the operating system that comes with it is crippled.  To get the battery life you want, the 2GB memory you need for performance, and the newest processors you are spending close to $400.

So I started looking at laptops.  But they tend to be pretty big and have much less battery life.  I finally settled on a Toshiba T135-S1305.  It has a very nice 13.3" screen, 320GB Hard Drive, Intel Pentium SU4100 low power dual processor and 3GB of memory.  It also shipped with the Windows 7 Home Premium OS.

Now I need to populate it with my software.  The list is:

1. Microsoft Security Essentials AntiVirus and Spyware protection.  (the laptop shipped with Norton, which demands payment after 90 days.  ick, get rid of it and replace it with Microsoft's free software.)
2. Itunes (of course)
3. Chrome (plus a host of extensions including AdThwart, BlogThis, Click & Clean, Downloads, Google Calendar Checker, Google Mail Checker Plus, Woot!, and Xmarks Bookmarks Sync plus Adobe Flash player and Shockwave)
4. Open Office (free!)
5. Photoshop and Premiere Elements (not free, but essential!)
6. Picassa (also free!)
7. Google Earth (fun!)
8. And of course all of the family's printer drivers

So it will be quite the project.