Hi there!
Head up! All this netbook noise, eee, Wind and other small things
(even phones like Neo FreeRunner) leads directly to thinking good way:
to have all the functionality and hardware support without heavy
glamour, also in Linux world. Have in mind Linux is also used on very
limited hardware (eg. routers) so it will directly or indirectly
support poorman's PCs.
In the meantime - maybe building newer kernel will provide some new
drivers and solve the issues?
Docking/nesting IMHO are points making d:b really unique, not the
small footprint.

BTW: Just an idea: would it be possible to have personal things in
nest (/home, /root) separated from hardware recognition (/etc)? It is
now hard to change PC without eg. re-creating xorg.conf

Happy hacking!
Uki