I would recommend a chromebook. I'm sure someone else would as well, but Chromebooks are basically little travelling chrome web browsers. Anything you can do in google chrome on a PC you can do there. With almost no risk of viruses and they're super fast because it's a light OS that doesn't intend on you storing media there, it uses flash storage.
They lack the value of a PC. PCs are still in general a bit better per pound on what you get vs what you pay because they don't use flash/SSD storage and generally smaller HDD which lowers cost. But IMO in the performance vs. price Chromebooks are better.
If all you want to do is go online, get a chromebook. I have a powerful desktop, a surface, and a chromebook. I probably use the chromebook the most overall.
I decided that a chromebook or a tablet isn't going to work for me, because I "need" some hard drive space. I got my new Dell yesterday, and it's bigger than I thought it would be, but so far it seems really nice.
When I'm in Texas, my netbook has to function as my desktop so it should do everything I want.