One segment that has disappeared entirely, but which was excellent for taking notes, was the 7-9" netbook. In college, I bought two of the Asus EeePCs as cheap

One segment that has disappeared entirely, but which was excellent for taking notes, was the 7-9" netbook. In college, I bought two of the Asus EeePCs as cheap little beat-around Linux laptops - far better to carry around campus than my real 17" laptop. Also it would fit comfortably with those horrible little rotating/folding desklets that you have in auditorium lecture halls. With a little practice, you could type along at a good clip in emacs with one hand.