[megaduck]

I've been using a Dell Mini 9 as my primary development machine for over a year now. There's more than enough power to fire up emacs, chrome, and a jvm (we're a JRuby shop). I love the amazing portability, and the ergonomics are adequate.

'Piece of Junk' is in the eyes of the beholder. In my experience, a $300 netbook has been the most productive machine I've ever owned.

edit: Sorry about the dupes, for some reason my phone freaked out and sent this three times. Fixed now.

[elblanco]

I bought my netbook as a toy and now use it almost everywhere for almost all of the things I used to do on a full system. I don't even bring along my much more powerful laptop to most places anymore. It's without a doubt the best consumer electronics purchase I've made in the last 5 years.

I also know that in a pinch, I can plug in a monitor and a usb keyboard and use it like a full machine (just with no 3d, and a slower processor). But for 95% of what I need (and I need some pretty processor intensive tasks, like photo editing, audio editing, etc.) it works "good enough". And it's unbeatable value for the dollar.

[pxlpshr]

It might be the most productive machine to you because it limits your distractions, but in a head-to-head I'm about 99.9% positive I'm far more productive on my Mac Pro w/ dual monitors because I don't waste my day consuming media. And, I'll put my money where my mouth is. :)