Netbooks for writers: Upcoming attractions

A friend and fellow freelancer, Kathy Kehrli, recently sent me an article on the value of netbooks for businesses. It was an interesting article with a lot of good points. I agree with it that netbooks are more powerful than most people assume, although I personally wouldn't want one as my only computer — and since my laptop is the size of many netbooks anyway, why bother?

(One thing I do disagree with in this article: that netbooks are too small for practical typing. I don't think that is true if you get a "large" netbook — i.e., one with a 10 or 11 inch screen, of which there are a couple. I've also typed on the ultra-tiny Sony Vaio, and I found the size of the keyboard to be comfortable.)

Here's something that is more likely to change my mind about netbooks, though: AT&T is going to start selling $50 netbooks with a data plan contract. As long as the data plan is reasonable and I can install Word, I will probably buy one, as it would be nice to be able to check email or research articles online when I don't have access to a free WiFi connection.