[jcantanixon]

I'm not going to get into details, but let's just say I have lots of Netbook experience. Here's what I think.

1. Don't bother with the Celeron, you'll be much better off with the Atom processor. The Celeron struggles to do things like watch videos or run larger programs.

2. Don't get a 9 inch. The keyboards are too small to be used by an adult for any length of time. 10 inch is the smallest I would go, and make sure it has at least 1024 x 600. A lot of web pages are designed for 600 vertical pixels and when you have less, it's not as nice of a browsing experience.

3. Get a real HD. The Solid State drives are a nice idea, but they're just not big enough/cheap enough for most people.

4. Operating System. Out of the box, Ubuntu isn't great on Netbooks unless you're already a Linux user. Windows XP is a bit of a pig, but is tolerable. You can also slim down the Windows install to make it run faster and use less memory.

5. Memory. Upgrading the memory on certain models is impossible, and on other's it is difficult. Research guides and DIYs for memory upgrades for whatever model you choose. I wouldn't want to be stuck with 1GB if that's all it came with from the factory.

My recommendation? A Dell Mini 10v running Mac Snow Leopard. You can "hackintosh" the Dell Mini 10v pretty easily. There's a guide on Gizmodo for doing this, and the Mac OS seems well suited for a Netbook. Snow Leopard runs fantasic on 1GB of memory if you decide that upgrading the RAM on a 10v is too much of a pain. Check out the MyDellMini forums for more info.