Chromebooks

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Asus has just started selling its latest 12 inch Laptop for just US $199. This is not a Windows machine but is based on the "Second generation" ChromeOS. This is a reliable system with basically just a web browser and file manager, kept up to date by Google, and used mostly Online. The first generation of ChromeOS didn't do well due to lack of Offline applications, but this has largely been fixed with the addition of Offline document editing, picture viewing, music and movie players. Ports for USB, SD cards, HDMI output are built in. A 320Gb Hard drive is used for local storage. If you use a computer mostly for surfing the Internet, E-mail, writing documents and media playing without needing a Virus checker this could be a good cheap choice.