Re: Intel HD graphics
"Noo it was slow single core CPUs, slow 4200rpm HDDS and 600 pixel depth screens that killed them.
The Intel graphics was the least of the worries."
I'm guessing the 'HD graphics' thing is a bit of misunderstanding.
Dual core netbooks with Intel GMA 3600/3650 GPU and the graphics drivers unavailable for Linux really didn't help make netbooks more useful, though, seeing as it was Linux that made netbooks really perform.
Checkout Atom N2600 and N2800 associated problems mentioned here:
http://communities.intel.com/thread/29157?start=15&tstart=0
and here:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=105091
Quoted from the Linuxmint forum, with my emphasis in bold:
Last generation of Intel Atoms: CedarView (D2300, D2500, D2550, D2600, D2700) and Cedar Trail (N2600, N2700, N2800) SoCs integrate a PowerVR GPU from Imagination instead of the usual Intel GPU. [...] An unsupported graphic card on Linux distributions, and which can't properly support a basic desktop environnment like Unity or Gnome 3.
Yeah, with the Atom N2800 able to support 4GB memory (http://ark.intel.com/products/58917) it seems perverse it should come with the limited Win7 Starter, and also not fully support Linux. I'm sure it made some sort of sense to someone to keep netbooks restricted by the OS. (Oooh look at the shiney new thing over there - touch the $hiney, shiney screen! - £ove the shiney!)
Atom N2600 and N2800 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_N2600#.22Cedarview.22_.2832_nm.29_2