I am interested in purchasing a netbook to do field research in another country. My hardware specifications for the nebtook:

-Be rugged enough to survive a bit of wear and tear -Fairly fast processing (the ability to upgrade from 1GB of RAM to 2GB) -A battery life of longer than 6 hours -At least a 10 inch screen -A decent camera for Skyping

My software needs: -Be able run a Spreadsheet program to do basic data input (like Excel or Open Office) -Use the Open Source Statistical Program R to do basic data analysis (Regression, data analysis etc.) -Word Processing (Word or Open Office)

Do you have any suggestions on which models or brands my fit my needs? Some of the models I was considering:

Samsung NB-30

Toshiba NB 305

Asus Eee PC 1005HA

Lenovo S10-2

Also any recommendations on the best software to load on the aforementioned Netbooks. I saw this resource from [livehacker][6] Any comments.

Thanks for your help! -Thomas