Finally, someone is thinking of what I'm thinking. I've been waiting for something like this for ages. Had Asus done this, there wouldn't be so many iterations. I hope the next step will be allowing us to pick the cpu and graphics chip. Please let this be cheap.

Any idea on cost?
The expresscard is a good addition.

Replying to myself… just had another thought.

Again, getting past the licensing with Microsoft would be the big obstacle. But here is an even better way this concept could be pushed all the way to a retail environment to allow maximum customization options by customers.

Carry these SKU's

1. The Chassis

2. Hard drives, blank in multiple sizes and combinations of rotating and solid state. For discussion letys say 8 and 16GB Flash plus 160GB and 320GB rotating.

3. Memory modules,in 512MB, 1GB, 2GB sizes.

4. Wireless options, WiFi, WiFi+BT, 3G, etc.

5. Flash drives preloaded as bootable recovery media designed to install/reinstall an operating system. The XP media would be restricted to be required to be sold only on the same receipt as either a chassis or perhaps also with an HDD depending on the negotiations with MS. The XP media would of course include the license key sticker, perhaps with a requirement that it be affixed before delivery to the customer.

So 13+ SKUs would allow for a boatload of combinations saleable at a wide range of pricepoints and not take very much shelf space or sink a lot of cash in inventory. And a little effort would allow the introduction of updated basic chassis without complicating the other accessories overmuch.

Because a fair number of customers will want XP. So any scheme that doesn't take that into account will fail. Or require an SKU with a hard drive preloaded with Windows be added to any product mix. And unless you offer a compelling solution full of upsale possibilities I can tell you what most retailers will stock.

Although I was shocked to see Target only selling the Linux based EeePCs during Xmas.

The only really interesting part on the current gen of netbooks is the display. For the rest, we can shop around. But give us a higher res display plz!

HD, RAM, and OS I can do on my own now, I want discrete graphic options

Good start though, looks promising.

I second that, the average consumer is not going to buy a barebones system I understand this, but me on the other hand will. About six months ago I purchased a Lenovo S10 netbook(mainly because of the Express Card slot) and the first thing I did was replaced the 512MB of RAM with a 2GB stick of RAM, then replaced the HDD with a SSD installed Windows 7, and finally replaced the battery with a 9cell. The final results a pretty decent netbook with great battery life. The only let down now I have spare parts laying around the house which equals wasted money.

Now if they where selling this at the time I would not have bought the Lenovo I would have just bought the barebones system. You take a look at most netbooks they are all the same except for the RAM, HDD, battery life, and OS. Once you take that in consideration with the number of people that upgrade their netbook this would make a great alternative.