I recently bought an Asus Eee PC 900a off Woot.com for $160. It’s an 8.9″ screen with 1GB RAM and a 4GB solid-state hard disk (SSD). It shipped with Xandros Linux, which I immediately replaced with a special mix of Ubuntu called Eeebuntu. It has a SecureDisk slot to which I added a 2GB card, so I have enough disk space to surf the net, write email, do some word processing, and listen to streaming audio.

I’d stay away from the “deals” at the phone companies for two reasons: First, you have to lock in to a monthly rate (which can be extra costly if you go over the limit) which when the term is over, will wind up costing you a thousand dollars for a netbook that is worth perhaps a tenth of that. Second, by the time your term with the phone company is over, your little netbook will be so out of date you will only be able to use it as a door stop and little else.

The Dell Minis get good marks, but Dell has discontinued the 9″ model, which means they’ve standardized on the 10″ or larger size. At that size, I still think the Asus Eee PC 1000HE or an Acer Aspire might be the top netbooks available today.

Dell has one for under $300