I have been wanting something inexpensive, lightweight, and not bulky to carry around the house and around town that I can develop on. I know most netbooks are fairly underpowered for development, but I thought I could focus on developing with vim or something lightweight and could build/test on a server. I'm also interested in Android development, but I'm not sure about the value of running Android on a netbook for testing vs. a mobile device. I would be the first to tell someone that they should just use a mac pro if they had the money and wanted to be mobile, but I just think of it as too bulky, and I really like the idea of a netbook. I know my fingers might be a little cramped, but maybe I'd get used to it.
Have you done any development on a netbook, and if so, what do you think of it? Any recommendations?
I have been wanting something inexpensive-
I used to think this way. Now I realize that it's not worth skimping on something you spend a significant fraction of your life using. Instead of the up-front cost, think of the amount you'll be paying per hour for the life of the machine.
I'm going to use numbers that favor cheaper computers. Say you use it 4 hours a day and upgrade in 2 years. If you spend $500, you're paying about 17 cents per hour. $1500 is 50 cents per hour. If you're actually using the machine for development, you'll create many times that in value each hour, let's say $5. If you can improve your efficiency by 10% (50 cents/hour) by buying the $1500 machine, then it's worth buying.
I've followed my own advice and bought a maxed-out 11" Macbook Air. I love it enough that I'm using it as my main development machine.