Do you know exactly what her needs are? If you could be more specific about what types of things she uses her laptop for that would be great. Generally speaking though, I guess you could look into using VLC for watching video and trying out Pidgin or Digsby for instant messaging (Warning: if you’re using Digsby make sure not to install the many adware programs they try to force on you during the setup). If you want to try something besides Microsoft Office, I suggest trying OpenOffice which is free and replaces all of the Microsoft products. Many people criticize iTunes for being bloatware, so if you feel this way maybe you could look into MediaMonkey or Songbird. Songbird is unique in that it supports extensions, but at the same time these can cause it to run slow. MediaMonkey is pretty slim, and is great for tagging music collections. Both can support iPods with a little setup, but iPhones/iTouches are a little more annoying to use with them. Anyway, if you’re looking for more things, maybe you could give a few more details.