[citation][nom]cadder[/nom]I like the netbooks. I think they are useful and will serve a purpose for a lot of people. Netbooks now are as powerful as our desktops were just a few years ago, so they will handle email, web browsing, small documents and spreadsheets just fine. What else do most people do these days? The keyboard is smaller but OK for writing an email. The screen is smaller, but reasonable for most people that won't stare at it all day.The netbook is not intended to replace desktops or larger laptops. It may be all that some people need, but other people will buy one to use in addition to their other computer(s).I remember in the old days when laptops were pretty big, but gradually they got smaller and smaller. Most people using them in those days were business people, so the goal seemed to be a laptop that was physically the same size as a piece of copy paper- 8.5" x 11", then it would easily fit in a briefcase along with other papers. That's still a small machine even by today's standards. Then a few companies brought out low powered machines that were smaller than 8.5x11. I wanted one of those, but before they got popular enough to become low priced they went away. Fast forward 10+ years and we are back to that with the netbooks.Netbooks will have to evolve to be compatible with future OS's. They can't stay with XP forever, meaning they will need more ram and maybe more CPU horsepower to run Vista or Win7. By the time Microsoft forces a transition from XP to W7, I think netbooks will be ready for it.[/citation]
If Microsoft is smart, and in this case I really think they will be, they are going to work more closely with vendors and try to optimize their OS to handle the type of systems were talking about, because lets face it with what your buying, you probably don't even need 1/4 of the baggage on a Vista install for what your going to do with this type of machine.