Netbook Recommendation

A friend is looking to buy a netbook for a friend's 11 yr old in a computerless household. They are getting set up with wifi access.

Any recommendations from any of you that are using these - or ones to stay away from if getting it somewhere like BB, Fry's or Walmart?

Right now I have a Dell Mini 9 and love it. I have had a few netbooks and this is by far my favorite. Is is discontinued now, so the only option to buy is from the Dell outlet. It uses a PATA PCIx SSD drive has a 8.9" screen and can take up to 2gb RAM. Runs Win7 really well. The keys are kind of small, but for a kid that won't matter much.

I have also had a Mini 10z. It uses a traditional SATA spinning drive and has the 10" screen. Same on memory and the keyboard is a little easier to use. There are still variations of the 10" current with Dell.

All in all, we have had 4 Dell netbooks in the house and have never had issues with any of them.

Some of the Dell models only accept 1GB of RAM (a crime IMO), so make sure you get one that can at least accept 2GB.

+1 for the Dell. They seem to hold up well and can be upgraded with more memory (some models). The other choice that I would recommend (at a slightly higher price) is the Toshiba.

I have two Acer Aspire One netbooks. One belongs to me, the other to my 9 year old daughter. Mine (which runs Ubuntu) has been flawless since late 2009. My daughter's computer's screen no longer works, due to her dropping it more than once. My daughter's netbook will work if connected to an external monitor. With care, the Acers seem to be decent.

I've also seen good reviews of Asus and Dell netbooks, FWIW.