ASUStek has a new one called "EeePC". Very small and light and durable, and the price is around $400. No rotating media; i.e., no hard drive. It uses "Flash Ram" organized as a hard drive. It'll boot from Off to Ready in about 35 seconds! Has 3 USB ports, built-in 100MBs and Wi-Fi networking. The most serious limitation is the 7", 640x480 display. This is adequate for most on-the-road tasks, and it's not intended to take the place of a regular PC anyhow.
There are 2 versions, each with several configurations. The Linux version is the one I'd get. It comes with OpenOffice, which works sorta like Microsoft Office, and can read and write Microsoft-compatible files. And the OS and OpenOffice fit into the available RAM, so there's little or no delay in loading programs. HAs a bunch of Games and Utilities built-in, too.
Available at Micro Center and Best Buy - - probably others, too. Try it out in the store and decide if it'll work for you.