The problem with current netbooks is that they don't have much in common with what they were supposed to be: cheap, sturdy PC companions with little RAM, little SDD space and a multifunction OS+apps installed - at least, the first Eee was just like that.
Then, Microsoft came and said: 'all netbooks must have Windows'. Exit the SDD, for pathetic hard disks; hitch up the price, for more RAM; remove features, for crippled Windows starter edition.
My Acer Aspire One, which came with Win7 Starter originally, got so pathetically slow as soon as I installed a real web browser, that it soon found itself reformatted with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. And guess what?
- it cold boots in 30 seconds from pressing the power button to the HD light stopping to shine (it stays solidly on during the whole boot) on the Gnome desktop; from that point, starting Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin and OpenOffice all together requires another 20 seconds. Not bad for 1 Gb of RAM.
- it retains more than 145 Gb of disk space once everything is installed.
Putting a 32 Gb SDD on such a system wouldn't have increased its price - but it sure would have improved its boot speed and resilience.