The Geobook is mobile primarily in the sense that you can carry it around. It does come with a removable internal battery, but this computer is guaranteed to spend most of its time near a power outlet. The Geobook takes 6 long hours to charge if you are willing to stop using it and put it into a special mode, or an astounding 15 hours if you want to be able to do something with it during the charging period. Either way, the result is just a single hour of battery life. And that hour will shrink to minutes as the batteries age, because instead of the more forgiving types found in modern notebook computers, these are nickel-cadmium, exceptionally finicky about how and when you charge them.

A few years back, the Geos operating system was briefly hailed as a potential challenger to Windows. Now it just seems long in the tooth. The version offered here comes with the Geoworks collection of application programs that include word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, address book and calendar. They are adequate, but because they reside in read-only memory, they cannot be upgraded. For example, there are just eight fonts, none of them particularly attractive, along with two sets of symbols. If you prefer something better, you are out of luck.

The programs can convert files into formats that Windows machines can use and save them on PC-formatted floppy disks. But the process failed to work several of the times I tried it. When it did work, it limited my options to formats from versions of word processors that were current several years ago.

The machine has similar problems working with printers. The Geoworks program lists dozens of printers, but not the newest models, and the software for the ones on the list is nowhere near as sophisticated as what manufacturers routinely supply. With Windows, the Hewlett-Packard printer that I own can routinely put out excellent text in its fastest mode. With Geoworks it can produce acceptable output only at the highest-quality setting, which slows it down and uses more ink.

A version of the Geoworks programs for DOS and Windows machines comes on CD-ROM so that in theory you can fiddle with your files on a real computer. I gave up trying to install it when it refused to recognize my machine's mouse and video card.