All those netbooks out there with the Intel's Atom processor facing competition from a $279 AMD-based Acer laptop.

Acers machine really makes the case for a netbook pointless. Why buy a Netbook with a 10-inch screen, an Intel Atom processor, no optical drive, and Windows XP that weighs about two pounds when you can have a laptop with a 15.6-inch screen, a higher-performance AMD or Intel processor, an optical drive, and Windows Vista that weights about six pounds? [Because it doesn't give you spinal deformities? sub.ed.]

OK the weight is a problem but most people buy netbooks because they can't afford a proper laptop. When Best Buy flogs a 15-inch Acer laptop for $279 that had been previously listed at $299 you know that the netbook industry is about to suffer.

The specifications: an AMD Athlon TF-20 64 processor, 15.6-inch WXGA display, 2GB DDR2 memory, DVD-RW drive, 160GB hard disk drive, ATI Radeon Xpress 1200 graphics, 802.11b/g wireless, 10/100 Ethernet LAN, and Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic Edition. The cheap Athlon MV-40, TF-20 and the even cheaper U2x0 Semprons have been around for quite a while, but they didn't manage to get a lot of design wins.

So why bother with a netbook if you are looking for a cheap PC?