thanks for all of the good advice.
I bumped the memory from 1GB to 2GB (max allowed) as soon as I bought the netbook, a Samsung 220N plus. It doesn't seem to use much more than 50% of this even when it is grindingly slow. Task manager doesn't reveal what is dragging it down but FF sometimes grabs 70% of CPU usage for many seconds at a time, sometimes with a "not responding" message in the top banner. There is plenty of disk space left, defragging didn't seem to improve it.
I am open to the benefits of Linux, I run "Mint" on my most powerful machine with FF and Open Office. The big BUT though, is that I need to keep access to a few things that are PC only such as GPS update software (car and aircraft), ham radio rig toolkit, morse code tutor (my preferred one is not available for Mint). I also access internet based, software defined radios, (websdr.org) which let you monitor all of the amateur radio bands using a small utility which they download/install/call when invoked. There doesn't seem to be a Linux option on the websites involved. Having these on a portable machine is important to me.
I think Win7 would be the best option if I can re-install without cocking it up.