The keyboard is a certainly a downer but it is great for the kids.

At the moment, perfectly good small computers are available for less than four hundred bucks. Better yet, these are computers with an easy to use Linux operating system and they come with all the software most people will want — software that is already installed and ready to use. The “learning curve” mentioned below is like about an hour.

Buy a computer running a Microsoft operating system and you have to pay through the nose for the some of the Microsoft software most people want, starting with a word processor. Buy a used computer running Windows and you may get licensing problems with Microsoft. (Sorry, I don’t know how that works.)

Sure, the smaller “netbook” or UMPC computers cannot play the expensive games many kids like. Many of those games require a computer that costs a thousand bucks, or more. But I can buy a very fine portable computer (like the MSI Wind) for $500 that would be ideal for any college student, or for use as a second computer around the house.

The other day, I had some heavy duty research to do and started out at the local library. Apparently the searches there are done on computer nowadays, but their computers were all busy. I was told that I didn’t even need to come in to do a search anymore; I could do it from my computer at home. But, if I brought my own computer in, I could also sign in on their wireless network and have full Internet privileges, which included searching their library. I did that. Howevber, as things turned out, they did not have what I needed. But, since I was already connected to the net there, I queried the local university library and they had paper versions of everything I needed, so I went there.

All this on a little Eee PC 701 with an easy to use Linux operating system. And, while at the university library, I made copies of some information and downloaded a lot of stuff to my little computer. Also, I took extensive notes, using the Open Office word processor that came with the little computer. Fact is, I did about 12 hours research work that day — it would have taken me two extra days without that little computer — and that work paid more than double the price of that little thing.

Oh sure, I could have lugged in a laptop and did the same thing. But everything I wanted was not in the same place. This was no small library and I was moving around a lot. And, anyway, large laptops do not have all that much battery power. I was thinking that I would need to plug in at some point, and I did, eventually. But I got a little more than three hours on battery before the computer started complaining. That was three hours of doing downloads (which I could have done at home on the desktop) and taking notes. And, yes, many of the notes were about papers that I would later download from the comfort of my home desktop but would probably not found on line — but some were not.

The point is that these little “netbook” computers do everything 95% of the people want in a computer. My test is to run the MSNBC news videos full screen on a computer. That’s the most difficult format so, if it works, chances are great that anything will. And, as far as I can tell, that will work on any of the “netbook” computers available.

My little Eee PC is quite useful for many things. But, the 7″ screen is a little small for my eyes and the keyboard is too small for my fat fingers. But, it’s great for reading news articles and watching news videos and I don’t seem to have any problems taking notes on it. So, answering e-mails & such is fine. But, doing serious writing can be a problem because I make too many typos on that little keyboard. Nonetheless, I try sometimes. . . .

Point is, if you do not have a full function computer at home, and a wireless network, one of these smaller computers may not be good for you. But, if you already have a wireless network at home, the “netbooks” are the way to go for kids and spouse. E-mail, IM, net browsing, word processing, and whatever — they do it all.

Oh, the netbook will not play expensive games and some will not be so good for editing videos. Right! And?