You’re just cool like that. Maybe you’ve got a tricked out Mac or Windows 7 at home. You’ve got the slickest smartphone with apps that do everything but make you coffee (although it can probably pre-order you one at Starbucks). And now you’ve got a rockin little netbook everywhere you go, to bridge the gap.

Or maybe you see no reason to pay thousands of dollars for ANY of the above, and you rock your netbook everywhere you go with everything you need at hand. You make the most of your money & just cut to the chase.

Either way, you always get questions and admirations when you pull the little baby out of your bag or purse. But you and your netbook compadre’s know the truth: Netbooks have limitations. So what’s a netbook rockstar like you to do? I’m in the same pickle, and have made some progress on my own. I also just read The Definitive Guide to Making the Most of Your Netbook (by Lifehacker, of course). And decided to run with a blog post, and am trying to keep it in the “layman” category. I leave hardcore, Yoda-style-geekery to my well qualified friends.

For me, it boils down to 3 universal limitations:

Little netbook, little ram, little harddrive: Get your google on. Replacing/upgrading the ram and harddrive in netbooks is often as easy as “unscrew tiny screws, take out old hardware, put in new hardware, screw tiny screws back in.” Well… that’s the gist of it anyway. There are mighty forums for every make & model – do a little googling to find out what type of ram you should use, and some advice from people who have gone before you. I’ve always found great deals on both ram & harddrives at NewEgg and TigerDirect.

Some of the itty-bitty netbooks with “flash” harddrives may only have a few gigs, the equivalent of a USB flash drive, and can be a little trickier. If dealing with computer guts makes you queasy, look into a service like DropBox or JungleDisk (my favorite). You’re used to storing your files on your harddrive, but these services are like having a “harddrive in the sky”. It looks & acts just like a folder, but the files don’t take up your valuable space. Even if you don’t have a netbook, this is a great way to backup your files. Your netbook could fall from your perch atop an elephant ride in Kenya into a muddy lake, but your files are still warm and cozy online.

Applications, Bloatware & Bandwidth-Hogging websites: Bloatware in laymans terms is “All that crap that comes installed on your new computer that you’ll never use or want.” To strip this gunk out, I’ve personally used CCleaner and recommend it, and the Lifehacker article recommends one called “DeCrapifier”, which I’m sure is great as well. Assess EXACTLY what you’ll be using your netbook for, then get rid of the rest. There are even special netbook versions of some applications (like browsers).

“Selecting applications for a netbook is a lot like packing for a camping trip. When you pack for a camping trip you select things for your pack that are efficient and lightweight versions of things you use every day at home, and you also pack things that are distinctly related to camping that you’d never use at home.” (Lifehacker article)

There are also netbook-friendly versions of some websites that are often “heavy” when it comes to bandwidth. YouTube is a huge bandwidth sucker, so they’re starting up “YouTube Feather“.

Battery Life: God I wish I had an answer. I have a Lenovo S-10 and it pulls a whopping 2 1/2 hours of battery life. What’s a girl to do? If you have any advice, please comment!