Asus EEE were the first of their kind made at a price a lot lower than anything on the market. I have the 701 which was one of their first models, it uses Linux as an operating system.
I bought it primarily to use whilst away. It came preloaded with Skype also so I use that to phone home, it also has a sd card so I can post photos back home. However, memory and storage wise it is extremely basic but has what I need. You can also use Google Documents to prepare work as this is stored on the net so no need for a big hard drive on the computer.
I choose a Linux system as I didn't want to be bothered with viruses and be having to purchase virus software. There are hardly any Linux viruses out there compared to Windows.
It depends on what your hubbie wants from the machine as to which one he needs to get. There are a lot now out on the market now to choose from.
Mine doesn't have a cd drive and I am not sure if any of the others have basically it is just a machine to use the internet on for me. I love it, as it fits in to a normal (large) handbag so it is easy to take about.