The one netbook I tried (a Dell Mini 10v) I just about threw through a window. Now, I was predisposed not to like it anyway, but here were the main problems:
1. The trackpad was terrible. Obviously the designers never used it during the design/testing phase. They tried to make it like the no button Macbook trackpad, but it's only about 1.5" tall, and it's not multitouch, so clicking the button in the lower left moves the cursor to the lower left. And you always run out of room moving the cursor up. Seriously stupid design.
2. The screen is, by definition, dinky. 600 vertical pixels is nothing, especially with a modern OS. Consider the Start menu--this screen isn't big enough to show the whole thing!
It's actually reasonably fast on start up running Windows XP, which surprised me, but with a 1 GB of RAM limitation (thanks, Intel!), there's no way you're going to be running more than one, maybe 2 programs at one time. Browser and email, check, oops, better close one so you can run Word!
