I recently bought my daughter an Acer for school, and I'm jealous. Compact, lightweight, and CHEAP. No drive, but we could use an external if we needed to. I just look online if I want to add something for her. I know I like to travel with mine and I bought the smallest laptop I could find when I was shopping for myself 18 mos ago and it's still too heavy to carry around. I also spent 4 times as much on it. I love my laptop, but would have been just as happy with the netbook and not had to lug around so much weight.
Excellent computer for basic functions. Especially for those who carry it back and forth for business or school. Maybe not so much for gaming or other media heavy uses.

The meaning of life is to live it.