I was going to post my own review of Foresight Linux, which I tried out two days ago on my Dell Inspiron 700m. You've hit most of my gripes, but I'll summarize them here:

1. The installer could not detect my Intel integrated graphics (855GM) and so I installed the OS via text mode. Upon reboot - no X, had to change the /etc/X11/xorg.conf driver from vesa to intel.

2. The package manager is slow and uninformative. I've been spoiled as far as speed is concerned, as I have used Debian and Debian-based distros for quite a while now. For my money, I haven't found a package management system that is faster and that has a similar depth of offerings.

After installation, I tried to find how to insall emacs. Searching for emacs in the Add/Remove Programs section brings up nada.

It is my understanding (and experience) that the search is based solely on the name of the individual packages, and not the contents of the packages or any metadata. I imagine that this will be addressed in the future, but it is a painful shortcoming *now*.

I didn't progress much farther with my review, instead deciding to download the latest Hardy Heron alpha and give that a spin. It works extremely well (wireless too!), and the laptop is ready for our vacation. Just what the doctor ordered!