i could have sworn i posted a reply here..
but anyway i definitely was going back and forth with netbooks since there are so many choices and a lot of them have pretty similar specs. i ended up getting the eeepc 1005ha in the mail today

removed xp and put in ubuntu netbook remix 9.10 and everything works without any tweaks which is great for me

TimSchirmer, do you have a best buy or some kind of electronics store near you that has all the netbooks you are looking at? I had to go to a J&R to check them out and test them out before buying my netbook. Also, if you do have any questions about the 1005ha i would be happy to answer any questions as long as the OS being used does not matter since most people i know run some form of windows instead of linux ;p