for me, the small size and light weight of the netbook was the deciding factor: the unit really is small enough and light enough to carry around, which is what I was planning to do with it. It's about the size of a BrailleNote, maybe a little lighter. If you don't have a Braille Note, it's about the size of a halfsheet of letter writing paper and maybe half an inch (1.3 cm) thick. the case I bought for it is the size of a purse that is bigger than medium, but not huge. I use mine for writing, emailing, and web surfing. So far, I haven't had problems with memory, and I do sometimes work on documents that are between one and two hundred pages long. there is no CD drive, but I bought one for 50 dollars, which is about the size of a CD jewel box, maybe twice as thick. It fits in the purse-like carrying case, so it's handy whenever I need it. The keyboard is comfortable, but because I have to be careful of my wrist, I connect an ergonomic keyboard to it if I plan to do more than casual typing. the netbook is a secondary computer for me, so I don't use it all the time. Still, I like it very well. VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List. Archived on the World Wide Web at http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html Signoff: [log in to unmask] Subscribe: [log in to unmask]