Netbooks are very cheap computers that are for portability and to save money on that extra second computer around the home. One problem that many are facing is that the software costs of a netbook at times are costing more than the entire netbook itself. There are many ways that you can save on the software for your netbook so that you can save some money.
The first thing that costs quite a bit is an office suite. While you might like Microsoft Office, buying the full version for a netbook might not make sense. You might not realistically be using the full blown features for hours on end on this type of device. Go with something like Open Office or just use Google Docs for your office suite on your netbook and save money. These programs will make documents that work with Office.
Get a free virus scanner versus a paid one. While this might seem risky there are many free versions that do a great job protecting your computer. Paying $50 a year for a virus scanner will in a few years be greater than the cost of your netbook so you might as well save.
If you edit images on your machine, Photoshop is just not going to work right on a netbook. You just don't have the screen space to use all the features. Use GIMP or some of the free online image editors that you can use for quick edits of photos.
If you enjoy chatting online, consider just using an all in one chat client as opposed to having two or three different versions on. This helps you save CPU and RAM meaning that you won't have to upgrade your computer to get better performance.
Instead of buying the paid backup services that many use, try something like DropBox. There is a 2 gigabyte version of this that is free. This way you can sync 2 gigs of files from your netbook to your primary machine meaning you can access the same documents from anywhere making it easier to stay organized while saving some cash.
Netbook software at times can cost more than the netbook itself cost. Find out how you can save money on software so that this doesn't happen to you.