The netbook situation isn't good. The market crashed and things aren't what
they could be. We had a 13.3" light notebook. There is no built-in optical
drive and it is more than a netbook would be... but it does have free
software drivers for the internal wireless card:
http://libre.thinkpenguin.com/
I'm not a big fan of hooking up an external USB wireless card to a notebook
although some here have done it. It may be possible to replace the internal
Mini PCIe wifi card too. You have to be careful though as most of the big
names are implementing digital restrictions that prevent the replacement of
this card. It's also a bit more work although many (most) notebooks have an
easy access bay so it isn't terribly difficult. Unfortunately they turns an
'open' standard into a proprietary one and you can only use the same chips
that came with the notebook (available from the 'manufacturer' of your
notebook).
