[citation][nom]Luscious[/nom]3 words - external optical driveNetbook users must be really dumb if they don't know how to install software that comes on a disc. $40 buys an external burner easy.[/citation]
I've never had the need to use an external drive with my Aspire One. There are already programs out there that allow you to transfer a disc image to a bootable flash drive. Once the OS is installed, sharing the drive of another PC or transfering the ISO images and using something like Daemon Tools to mount them works fine.
Even though I only plan on installing Win7 on my regular desktop system, the download system sounds great. If you all you needed was an account of some kind and then you can just download the image to a flash drive any time you wanted that would be very convenient compared to a DVD that you can misplace, damage or forget to take with you.