Tiny PCs, Full-Size Problems

The Asus, by contrast, cruised along for 2:54 and the Dell for 3:14. The Acer's expanded-capacity battery (which added $130 to its $329 base price) didn't run out until the five-hour mark.

Expandability is on the short side, with only two or three USB ports each, plus a memory-card reader (SD cards only on the Acer and Asus, SD and Memory Stick on the Dell, MSI and Lenovo models). The Dell, MSI and Lenovo computers also included Bluetooth wireless.

Most of these netbooks' software was also problematic. The Lenovo and MSI netbooks arrived with Windows XP Home, which seems a safe choice but doesn't fit here. These limited machines have little room for the wealth of software Windows supports.

The MSI review unit came with an odd, particularly vulnerable configuration of XP including the dangerously obsolete Internet Explorer 6 without antivirus software loaded. (A spokesman said this computer might have been loaded with the wrong software bundle.)

The open-source Linux operating system costs less (as in zero) and provides far better security. And as it's set up on the Acer, Asus and Dell, it features all the basic tools you might need: the Firefox browser, music and photo tools, and the Microsoft-compatible OpenOffice productivity suite.

Acer put all these options behind a remarkably simple interface, with large, can't-miss shortcuts for each installed program. Unfortunately, adding software to it required far more tinkering than most users would accept. It also failed to print anything, even though it claimed to recognize an HP printer/scanner.

Asus's version of Linux looks almost as simple but badly needs to be simplified once you get past the first layer of program shortcuts. And it wasn't much more hospitable to add-on programs.

Dell, by contrast, bundled Ubuntu Linux, a slightly more complicated but far more capable version of Linux that easily stands up to XP. If only the Mini didn't have such a wretched keyboard -- and a price inflated over the usual $349 by extras such as Bluetooth and a webcam, which should have been standard -- it would be easy to recommend.

What to get instead? If you're buying a netbook as your sole computer, knowing that you'll only use it on the Web, Acer offers the best bet for now. If, however, you're buying it as a third or fourth computer and are willing to tweak it to fit your own needs, look at the MSI.

But it might be better to wait. If these manufacturers have the good sense to steal each other's best ideas, we should see significantly better choices before long.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro at robp@washpost.com. Read more at http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward.