You are exactly the person who the Netbook was designed for!
Netbook is a recent term, and doesn't really have any official definition. Basically, Asus computer came up with the concept of a less-than-state-of-the-art mini-laptop for people who don't necessarily need the latest and greatest specs for their basic computing tasks. The original concept was the EEE PC, which had a line of ultra-economy models called the "Surf", which were named so because they were perfect for surfing the web around the house without lugging around a larger laptop or being tethered to a desk.
The concept of an ultra-portable designed for basic use (such as simply surfing the internet) became popular, and other manufacturers followed suit including HP, Acer, and Dell (in that order I beleive). There was no term for this new genre of light-laptop, but since they were inspired by the eee PC "Surf", and perfect for light computing (such as surfing the net), "netbook" was deemed an appropriate term.
That's all there is to it!
(Also, for your information, laptop does not equal notebook in all cases. Laptops were originally much larger- I actually still have an original laptop from 1986 somewhere in my parents' house, and it was roughly the size of a breifcase. "Notebook" was a marketing term for laptops that were small enough to fit inside something like a messenger bag or school backback, replacing standard paper notebooks. Nowadays, the older, larger laptops don't exist and everything is considered a notebook. Technically, netbooks, tablets and notebooks are all different classifications of Laptop in the same way that economy, full size and SUV are all types of cars.)
