On Thu, 5 Nov 2009, Mike Miller wrote: > Right now the message I'm getting is that these Asus Eee machines are > great and a bunch of Linux distros run really well on them. And so I just ordered these items from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1005HA-PU1X-BU-10-1-Inch-Blue-Netbook/dp/tech-data/B002DYIXMS/ http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-CT25664AC667-200-Pin-SODIMM-Laptop/dp/B000F7QRTG There were a lot of options: http://event.asus.com/eeepc/comparison/eeepc_comparison.htm Even within a category like "Eee PC 1005HA" there were at least the PU1X model (which I ordered) and the MU17 model, and then a choice of BK (black) or BU (blue) after that. With free S/H and the 2GB RAM it was slightly less than $400. I think I'm going to enjoy using this little netbook on planes. It has 10.5 hours of normal-use battery life (they say) and it's small, so it will fit between me and the guy in front of me -- that was a problem with the big Dell laptop I last owned. With 160 GB of HDD I can load a lot of cool software on there, DVD ISOs, MP3 files, etc. Mike