Our friends over at Ostatic have posed a good question, one I’ve thought about in the past. They are looking at the feasibility of Android-based netbooks, something we’ve covered here, and give a good case for open source netbooks. The problem they point out is that such netbooks, often running some flavor of Linux, usually have lesser hardware components than Windows-based netbooks.

Wading through the numerous netbooks available today can be challenging, so you might want to at least start with this list of the first three netbooks to consider. There are selected because they have all been fairly well received and, more importantly, all have some feature that distinguishes them from the crowd.

On March 3rd, though, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, What's particularly interesting about netbooks is the price point. Eventually, it will make sense for operators and so forth to subsidize the use of netbooks so they can make services revenue and advertising revenue on the consumption. That's another new model that's coming."

Vodafone has dismissed the preinstallation of Linux onto its netbooks, citing consumers' perception that netbooks are equivalent to laptops in their functionality.

Since people saw the big impact of Netbooks in the market, different Linux distributions came out that were customized for Netbooks. They were designed a little differently to optimize viewable area on small 10-inch screen sizes

AT&T is putting its weight behind netbooks using ARM processors, calling them the "next big step." The carrier has also begun selling four different subsidized netbooks in Atlanta and Philadelphia, with plans to roll them out nationwide.

Netbooks may be on the cheaper side of computing, but as we're all watching our pennies now, making the right choice is essential. We've brought together all the netbooks we could get hold of - most of which are bundled with Linux - for a comprehensive test. We're looking at:

Sun Microsystems is working with partners to make Java telecomsy for netbooks. The company hopes to deliver a modular version of Java Micro Edition (Java ME) "sometime" next year, which would let netbooks running Java offer more of the kinds of features used in cell phones and are currently enabled on such devices through the Java APIs.

Intel is rolling out a new line of Atom chips, which power most Netbooks, for mobile devices. With Android moving into Netbooks, you can expect a merger between the Netbook and mobile form factor very soon.