-

OK, so a netbook might not be a powerhouse. However, if you want to have the OS and Apps run almost in an instant I recommend the following.

First, max out the RAM, generally they come with 1GB. Some netbooks have an empty slot so you just have to buy a 1GB module, Others have just the one slot so they make you buy a 2GB module, how nice of them.

Second, if you really want speed, get a SSD, Solid State Drive. Not only are they approx 3 times faster (read/write times) they will also increase your batteries run time and they are dead quiet.

My netbook came with XP and a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 160GB HDD and took about 45 odd seconds to boot. I installed the OCZ Vertex 2 Sandforce 40GB SSD (one of the fastest SSDs out there) my boot time dropped to 17 seconds. I cleared off XP as I have been running Linux Mint 9 Fluxbox Edition (which is the slickest Linux distro I've ever tried) and my boot time is 9 seconds!

Using the same scenario as above my battery (which is only a 3 cell) went from 2hrs 15min and increased to almost 3hrs and 30min. This is a credit to both the SSD and Linux.

The only "downfall" to the SSD at this time is cost. The OCZ Vertex 2 Sandforce 40GB SSD is $109 CDN, I could have bought a 500GB Seagate or Western Digital for $80-100 CDN. I chose the speed over space. I'd never fill a netbook up that much!

So there you go, hope this helps if you are deciding on doing a similar upgrade.

+++ The modification below is for the Lenovo S10 and OCZ Vertex 2 SSD only. +++