Luckily, there are a few shortcuts available that provide all-in-one solutions to give you a running start. These packages include a lot of essential software, without the  RAM-stealing shovelware you tend to bundled with new PCs from most major hardware manufacturers. Whenever I set up a new PC, I like to strip it down to the bare essentials and build it back up piece-by-piece; these packages help expedite the process considerably.

Google Pack

Some people think Google is angling to take over the world, and using the free Google Pack to get a web working computer set up might just be helping them reach that goal faster, but it sure is an attractive option for those looking to get started with easy-to-use, free software covering a gamut of uses. There are things you expect, like Google Chrome, Google Earth and Google Talk, and some less predictable entries that round out the standard fare very nicely.

There’s Picasa for light photo-editing and sharing, Mozilla Firefox (with Google toolbar) for more fully-featured web browsing, Skype for inexpensive and/or free long distance telecommunication, and a couple of security solutions to keep your computer running smoothly and securely. The only downside to this all-in-one that I can see is the inclusion of Real Player, which as far as I can tell, has little or no relevance in today’s online world.

The Mac Sale

It’s more expensive, and it’s Mac only, and it’s only available for a limited time (or this one is at least), but if you’re looking for a more eccentric bundle and you’re partial to Apple hardware, The Mac Sale offers a nice mix. In its current iteration, which is only available until August 18th, retails for $49 and includes $450 worth of software.

My personal favorites among the offerings are Scribbles, a drawing and illustration program, and WriteRoom, a simple, productivity-enhancing word processor, both of which I already own. Those two alone are almost worth the $49 price of admission, but throw in a task manager, a clipboard utility, and a powerful Spotlight enhancement/replacement, and you’ve got yourself a bona fide bargain. Even if this deal has ended by the time you’re reading this, poke around for other Mac software package deals, because there’s usually one ongoing, like MacHeist, or the MacUpdate bundle.

Tiny USB Office or PortableApps

Both of these mobile app packages fit on any available USB drive, and can have you up and running on whatever computer you have access to, so long as it has an open USB port. Both come with a variety of apps, all of which take up very little drive space, allowing them to run from the drive itself.

Tiny USB Office is a collection of light but functional independently developed freeware. You’ll get a text editor, file compression, file encryption, an MSN messenger clone, and numerous other tools, all in one convenient download. PortableApps is a little fancier, let’s say, and comes with portable versions of Firefox, Thunderbird, and Sunbird, along with OpenOffice.org, a PDF reader and an IM client, and even a game or two thrown in for good measure. It’s also the beefier of the two, but at 350MB, you’ll still have plenty of room aboard your drive for documents and other files.

Part of the fun of being a web worker is kitting out your own hardware, but you don’t always have the time for a lengthy and involved setting-up process, so I find these software packs can be a good way to help you hold on to some of the fun of setting up, without all the hurt of digging around for individual programs. Plus, with the USB drive suites, you can be up and running on any computer in no time. The selections may be a little hit or miss, but you can’t beat them for convenience.

Do you use a starter pack to help get your web working machines set up?

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I’ve written before about the PortableApps suite of mobile applications, which is a convenient way to put many free, open-source applications on a USB thumb drive, or any portable drive, in one download. Once the applications are on your portable drive, you can use them from any Windows-based computer, anytime. USB thumb drives offering lots of capacity have become very inexpensive, but what if you have an older one with less capacity, or a drive that’s nearly full? If that’s your situation, Tiny USB Office is a solid suite of tiny applications that, at only 2.5 megabytes, can give you a lot of functionality on virtually any drive.

Tiny USB Office contains small, portable versions of common Windows applications in several useful categories, and they load and unload like a charm from any portable drive. In the suite, you get:

• Database Creation (CSVed)
• Data Encryption (DScrypt)
• Email Client Software (NPopUK)
• File Compression (100k Zipper)
• File Sharing (HFS)
• File Transfer (FTP Wanderer)
• Flowchart Creation (EVE Vector Editor)
• MSN Messenger Client (PixaMSN)
• Tree-Style Outliner Software (Mempad)
• PDF Creation (PDF Producer)
• Password Recovery (XPass)
• Secure Deletion (DSdel)
• Spreadsheet Creation (Spread32)
• Text Editing (TedNotepad)
• Word Processing (Kpad)
• Program Launching (Qsel)

The applications in Tiny USB Office are definitely not full-blown replacements for the applications you normally use, but they’re not intended to be. Instead, they are tools you can keep in your pocket, like a Swiss Army knife, to get most common computing tasks done when you need to. For example, the Kpad word processor looks and feels a lot like Windows Notepad, and isn’t meant to be a replacement for a full word processor. But Kpad is perfectly fine for composing a blog post while on the go, or reporting from an event.

Some of the applications are very tidy, focused and useful tools to have on hand, and you may come to like them. The EVE Vector Editor, for example, is a very simple way to do on-the-fly flowcharts, and PDF Producer does quick and easy conversion of files to PDF.

I’ve come to depend on my USB thumb drive for mobile use, and many owners of netbooks are increasingly using them to add a little local storage capacity. No matter what type of portable drive is available to you, Tiny USB Office is one of the leanest, meanest way to get lots of tasks done on the go.

What apps do you have on your thumb drive?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks