A Holiday Shopping Guide for Netbooks

Stock quotes in this article: MSFT , DELL , HPQ , JAVA , GOOG  

They are the hottest computers around. Those little laptop computers are in such demand that stores can't keep them in stock.

The official term for these micro-notebooks is "netbook" -- a combination of network connections and notebook.

They are super lightweight (two to three pounds), with small screens, small keyboards, small storage capacities, small amounts of memory, wireless connectivity, power-friendly processors and very low prices.

HP sold the first netbook a decade or so ago, but it was Asus, a Taiwanese company, which popularized the modern-day netbook with its Eee PC.

In the year or so since Asus introduced the first Eee model (a 7-inch screen running a form of the Linux OS), it has come out with dozens of different models with screens as large as 10.2 inches, a choice of different brands of Linux or Microsoft's (MSFT Quote)Windows XP operating system, flash storage memory or hard drive, and a dazzling array of styles and colors.

With the holiday shopping season approaching, many other companies, including Dell (DELL Quote), Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ Quote)and MSI, have followed Asus' lead and introduced their own little netbooks. All are priced competitively with popular models selling in the $350 to $500 range depending upon the choice of features and options.

You can see recent reviews of some of my favorite netbooks here, here , here and here.

The big question for this holiday shopping season is whether or not a netbook is the right computer for you. The answer depends on what you're looking for in a portable computer.

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