There is a big difference - ARM netbooks will have a different use case. You would keep an ARMbook always on, just like a NIT. Even if you *could* put Windoz on it, without optimizations, it would suck the batteries dry real quick and would feel a lot more sluggish than, say, ARM ubuntu, Maemo or Android. And then you get what - bad battery life and a bad user experience (which *is* a recipe for disaster).

In those terms, NOT being able to run Windows is an advantage, as there won't be a horde of people suckered to buy it hoping it's a supercheap Atom with longer battery life and then get seriously disappointed and generating a LOT of bad PR which in turn will damage the odds of the device succeeding in markets it *would* be good for, e.g. the Linux crowd.

Well, a netbook is not really meant to be a primary computer, ARM or Atom or Via... But then, a budget is a budget...