I bought my NOTE brand new for $690 with shipping and also got a 32GB microSD.

It can be had for ~$600 depending, and its worth its weight in gold$$$

I'm closely tracking the Ubuntu port and the Spark tablet. I think there might be a middle-ground somewhere. I think a dualboot into Linux+rpm+kde is possible just need the source which can be had from a range of devices (SGTABv, SGSII, SG NOTE all use Exynos) and also the LIMA driver.