I remember when I was looking for a new machine for my wife, back when the baby was just about due. I thought hard about those netbooks. They were cheap (some still are when you see the deals at places like buy.com) and they were small and light and did the basics – she needs to write and surf the web. Netbook=perfect, right? Instant on, solid state, no nonsense…right? Just like those old CE machines that never quite took off, but without the bloat of Windows.

And then they started shipping them all with Windows. WHY! They went from instant on to long ass load time – as much as 10 minutes to boot on some models. And the slightly pared down version of Windows still added more than 50% to the cost. Oh well. Another good idea killed by greed. Sigh.

By the way – I got her a smaller laptop instead. Full capabilities and only about 3 ounces heavier and $60 more than a Windows-loaded netbook. So there.