Linux is taking the ultra-portable market by storm with releases like the Everex Eee PC or Cloudbook, in part because they run free operating systems and cost $400 instead of $1800 for the Macbook Air. Still, for my money, I'd buy an older IBM Thinkpad X31 which I just saw on Ebay for $280 and get a full-size keyboard. But regardless of what form-factor and notebooks are the best buy, the real story in portable computing is the story of Portable Apps.

Portable Apps are complete operating systems or individual applications that run off your "thumb drive" (aka USB stick). This means that wherever you go, you can take your browser and bookmarks, email and contacts, and other applications with you. OK, so you still need to have a computer available at your destination (work, library, friends house), but it will at least feel and work like your own. And you only have to shell out $40 or so for a USB stick. OpenOffice is one example application that is available which means that you can take your office suite with you to the library. There are other similar efforts like winPenPack in Italy.

More on this topic is at http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/reviews/showArticle.jhtml?ar...

It's also worth noting that if you frequently work at more than a single computer, and you use Firefox, (of course!) then you really should know about Foxmarks which makes it so convenient to have all your bookmarks synchronize across computers.