if it were optimized like the tablet computers so that it wouldn't need a physical mouse.
would you get this device if the hardware was good ?
Hardware is irrelevant. It is the software experience. XP, windows or any Desktop OS is NOT suited for a mobile device. I had full on Ubuntu 11.10 installed on my HP Touchpad. It was pretty amazing to see mySQL, Gimp, Firefox, Open Office run on a tablet "natively." but the novelty wore off quick.
I am on my third iPad (1,2,3) and I will be getting a Galaxy Tab 2 next week. It is an iPad market and the iPad app-ecosystem proves it.
For the 1st, 2nd, I used the iPad as mostly an entertainment device but the 3rd one has taken everything to a whole new level. I am ready to leave my two QUAD-core i7 laptops at home and just use the iPad 3. I bought some great apps so all my work can be done on the iPad. - UML modelling, visio flow charting, database queries/programming, remote VPN access. I can interchange Excel files. I can remotely log in. I can mount Windows, Linux, NFS, Appletalk shares from all kinds of server environments and view EPS and native Photoshop hi-res files. I can dump 14 megapixel RAW files and edit them on the iPad. I manage a cluster of 60 servers and 12 databases from my iPad. I show and review hi-res files to clients. Make quotes, annotate PDFs.
The workflow has dramatically changed in the last 4 months where the touch, multigesture apps have come up to steam. I do all my flow-charting and GNATT diagrams on my iPad. Clients review and interact and everything works. I create XEN VMs, design mySQL and Postgres Data schemas. What else do I need for "REAL WORK?"
So the Touchpad running "full" Ubuntu, a desktop OS with real "desktop OS apps" didn't cut it for me because it was so cumbersome.
App developers are taking everything to a whole new level.
XP on a mobile device doesn't interest me. Heck, OSX on a mobile device doesn't interest me. Linux (unless it has an intuitive multigesture UI) doesn't interest me.
The only XP (window) apps I would ever run are erWin (a high end database modelling) and Visio and I can't ever see it running well with a stylus or touch click.