The Eee has replaced both my desktop and my laptop. The screen is plenty big enough for most uses, even for my 60 year-old eyes. It does dual or treble boot as easily as anything else, maybe easier. You can boot whatever you like off the USB or SD ports. Lots of people are installing WinXP on the SSD and booting various Linux distros off sticks or SD cards. The Eee is a full computer, just in a smaller box, which makes it far easier to carry but it's just as productive as anything else. My big HP laptop now makes a fine doorstop, because it's just too big and heavy to carry around, and the Eee will do absolutely anything it will do, and do it faster and longer. If you need optical media, just plug one into the USB port, as well as a terabyte HD if you want. The package will still be lighter and smaller than a huge laptop. You can also plug an external monitor and/or keyboard in and use that if you have to have a bigger screen. Don't slag something you've never seen or used. Your ignorance shows very clearly.