if a new x86 tablet was released with equal performance and battery life to an arm based tablet which would you buy?

also what is your opinion on x86 pocket devices?

Given exactly equal CPUs, the only reason to care about architecture is either because you want Windows or because you're an architecture fanboy.

But since the architecture isn't the only factor in the situation, and the two CPUs are not and will not ever be equal in all areas, it's really not a very meaningful question.

Well, as long as the new tablet isn't much bigger, heavier, and power hungry than the current OMAP-based tablet, and has decent performance and ergonomics, I will buy it no matter what CPU it uses. Please note that the current crop of x86-based tablets is nowhere near this point.

I just bought my daughter a dual core AMD 2Ghz/4GB RAM tablet PC running Vista for $800. Its got a 12.1inch screen and is fairly small for a laptop. I spent several hours setting it up and dual booting fedora. It has a 250GB HD so plenty of room. I am very impressed with the hardware. The touchscreen has a pen but also works with your finger. Far from pocketable, but very fun to play with..

It was HP tx2500z, You can build at HP dot com or Circuit City has a loaded model for about $950 I think. Might watch Circuit city sales and get that cheaper.

Anyway its just my two cents.

Well, it is a full size cheapo laptop. Weights 2+ kilos and lives for 1.5..3 hours off a single battery charge. What is "tablet" about it? That swivel display?

I would prefer a x86 tablet due to the much easier learning curve when getting in to software development. For beginners/intermediate development, the compact framework in Visual Studio just rocks (assuming that x86 hardware means some sort of Windows as OS).

One word: Python.

twaelti,

I have come from a windows background, I have a lot of experience with microsofts' IDEs and toolchains and I agree, for a "complete package" in microsoft land its all there and works. Its also expensive and slow and has just as steep a learning curve as any other development environment.

Learning to do the same in Linux and getting to grips with the toolchain here has been equally hard, but ultimately more rewarding. I am able to tailor the system to my favourite way of working and use my own personal best editor.

Ontop of this, in microsoft land if you encounter a problem with a core library there is no way to find out why or work round it, everything you do is at arms length.
In linux I can go as far as I need and am able to offer suggestions and patches to make it better for everyone.

If you want a nice rounded quick easier to digest devenv, fms is 100% right, python fills the gap between native and scripted languages nicely.

I personally want a large format tablet myself and I don't care what cpu or battery life it has, it will be running Linux and will be used to create the big daddy for liqbase and to test all this clutter stuff without the horrid non-interaction of a mouse

or you simply want to avoid the pitfalls of cross sdks, or you'd like to install a distro that's not available for arm, or your favourite rad doesn't still work right with eabi, or....

Well, if the performance and battery life were equal, it would probably come down to price; if price is also equal, then I'd likely go for x86, as there is more binary-distributed software I might wish to run for x86 than for ARM, and I don't intend to do any assembly programming on either.

OTOH, I might go ARM, just to support proper design, and because I like it; if you've even looked at ARM and x86 instruction sets, I can't imagine liking x86 better.

That they don't (and won't ever) have equivalent performance and battery life to the best RISC CPUs, and so aren't really worth discussing unless you need legacy x86 binary compatibility.