My New Best Friend

I have a new best friend. It's small and bright and fast. It does things that many much larger cousins can't or won't. I can do everything I'm used to doing with it, I'm on it right now in fact, and it weighs about 2 pounds.

It's my new netbook, a small laptop built by ASUS, the EEEPC 900, and it can surf the net wirelessly or write a report but more importantly it goes wherever I go. It comes with Linux preinstalled, a light version of Xandros Linux which can easily be converted to a full Windows-like format. I have Skype, an all-in-one Messenger compatible with Google, Yahoo and MSN, Mozilla Firefox is standard, it comes with a full version of Open Office which is fully compatible with Microsoft Office and a small smattering of games. I can install Windows XP if I like but I won't, though.

Drawbacks? The key board is substandard with little space between them, the screen is only about 10 inches wide, and the battery life is about 4 hours, but the positives far outweigh the negatives. Number one positive? For about the price of a month and a half's worth of gas, I can replace my bulky and heavy laptop, with one the size of a hard back book, and fly.