I'm happy with Bodhi Linux on my netbook. The initial install is ascetic (which I guess is appropriate), but one can easily pull in other apps. E17 provides a b

I'm happy with Bodhi Linux on my netbook. The initial install is ascetic (which I guess is appropriate), but one can easily pull in other apps. E17 provides a beautiful desktop with low overhead, and Bodhi configures it so that things just work. It's based on Ubuntu LTS releases--a 12.04-based version isn't out yet, but when it is I guess you'll have to decide whether it exceeds your comfort level.