I bought the Avereratec 3715 when it came out because of its light weight and internal optical drive a few years ago when it came out but I wouldn't recommend Averatec although they have changed ownership -- mainly because mine is impossible to get at the inside -- you have to strip it down including disconnecting the screen to insert a RAM module so I'm stuck with the 512MB it came with.

Amazon show this plucked from the Acer site:

Acer TravelMate 6293-6727 - Core 2 Duo P8600 / 2.4 GHz - Centrino 2 - RAM 2 GB - HDD 160 GB - DVD?RW (?R DL) / DVD-RAM - GMA 4500MHD Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0 - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, 802.11 a/b/g/n (draft) - TPM - fingerprint reader - Vista Business / XP Pro downgrade - pre-installed: Windows Vista - 12.1" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) - camera

$749.00

I believe it's about 4.7lbs but you'd have to check out.

I wander around places like Office Depot to see what they have and check out www.salescircular.com to get ideas -- pick any US State just to get an idea or maybe there is a similar Canadian site?

For example there are a number of smallish screen (12in 13 in) HPs:

Hewlett Packard DV21030

DV2-1030 Notebook Computer with 12.1-in. BrightView widescreen. AMD Athlon MV-40 Neo processor, 4GB memory, 320GB hard drive, External DVD +-RW Drive. 802.11b/g/N wireless LAN. Webcam, Microphone. Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

$549.99

if you don't mind the optical drive being external or

Hewlett Packard DV32150

DV3-2150US Laptop with 13.3-in. Widescreen. Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor, 4GB memory, 500GB hard drive, Dual layer DVD +-RW drive. Webcam, Microphone. 802.11G/N WLAN. Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

$649.98

but note that both have 64 bit VISTA which is probably OK OEM in a laptop where the only external device you are likely to want to plug in is a printer -- so makea sure that any printer you have is available with 64bit drivers to install on the laptop -- unless you access via a LAN when you may not need one but don't rely on that unless someone knowledgable confirms it since Windows 64 will not accept non-64 bit drivers.

  Hugh

dozens of "Netbook" - none with optical drive.
a cd/dvd give-away is about $.7, a memory give-away about $7. Besides lots of data is still on CD/DVD.

Is there a search facility with include / exclude parameters / specification for small computers somewhere?
Quality search rather than quantity, possibly regional too. ?

  Hugh