What is the screen resolution? In my experience, that is going to be the biggest issue. There are a few distros aimed specifically at netbooks. My missus uses EasyPeasy, which is basically Ubuntu with a Gnome primer and a netbook specific overcoat. It works pretty well, although some dialogue windows do not quite fit in the screen vertically. Which is kinda annoying when the piece that gets cut off is the piece with the OK button. Her netbook is AAO with a 1024x600 screen and... let's just say that Gnome is somewhat generous with its use of the screen real estate. But so is KDE, LXDE and Xfce. I am sorry to have to say that but Windows uses the screen much more efficiently. Why do all Linux window managers assume that I have the screen the size of a football field is what I will never understand.