Inexpensive laptop for school

Currently I have a Desktop computer hooked up to my 40" LCD TV, which I used for gaming, Internet, video and otherwise.
That computer is going to be used in another room for other purposes.
I do currently have a Toshiba A135-s4527 which in terms of computing does fine for my traveling/school needs (even running VMs), except that the keyboard blows.
I will be getting an XBox at the end of the year, which will take care of gaming needs, so I do not have any need for a laptop with an amazing video card.
Since the keyboard is crap, I will probably hook THAT laptop up to the TV and just use a wireless mouse/keyboard.
It doesn't play 1080p that well, but my TV has a USB port in the back, so I have a NAS drive hooked up to it via USB (ethernet port connected to the router so I can manage the movies and access them elsewhere) and it plays video from it in 1080p perfectly.

I would like a second laptop, which will "probably" replace the current one and I would then use my toshiba laptop with the TV and wireless keyboard/mouse.
That way it doesn't matter if the keyboard on the laptop sucks or not.
At the same time, I don't necessarily need anything that is more powerful than it for school use and would prefer to keep the costs low, since it would be a waste of money and I don't like to bring expensive stuff to school.

In terms of power consumption, size and power for most uses, even a netbook would be perfectly sufficient for most tasks I'd use it for; however, since my schooling and career focuses on computer security, being able to run a VM or two likely rules that out.

General Questions

1) What is your budget?
Lower is better, even if used.
Hard to quantify, but a $2000 laptop would be silly.

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

a.
Netbook; 10