These are pretty much my 3 biggest arguments against spending a lot of time and effort bothering to get Ubuntu Mobile working on the tablets:
1. Ubuntu is targeted at x86 CPUs. Yes, it can be ported, but upstream they will always be focusing on x86 first, leaving community members who are porting things in a constant state of playing catch-up.

2. Ubuntu Mobile is targeted at CPUs over 800MHz with 512MB of RAM minimum. The tablets have a 400MHz CPU with 128MB of RAM. It likely won't boot without swap. Performance is not going to be good. They have two app launchers. One is written in flash. One depends on hardware 3D acceleration.

3. The space requirements will probably make an SD card required equipment on the N800. If it's slimmed down small enough to fit on the 2GB in the N810 it will likely be with no space left over and/or reduced functionality.

Now this applies to the current ARM based tablets, but many people here are thinking the next tablet (or maybe the one after that) will have an x86 CPU and thus all of everyone's problems will be magically solved. Here is why I think the next tablet will have an ARM CPU. (As much as I can, I'm trying to pull my own personal bias out of this and hypothesize what I think Nokia *will* do, not what I think Nokia *should* do. Do not respond to this arguing why *you think* Nokia should put an x86 CPU in some hypothetical next generation tablet.) Why I think Nokia will use ARM (specifically TI OMAP) CPUs in future tablets, for at least the next two generations:
1. Hardware development experience: Nokia makes a range of phones based on TI OMAP system-on-chip designs. Expertise in developing the hardware behind the N95 (and other high-end S60 phones) translates really well towards making the tablet. They even get to re-use a lot of the accessory chips to handle charging and other system details. This saves time and money, while letting them get out a product of higher quality faster.

2. Software development experience: They already have a lot of time and money bound up in developing Maemo/OS200x for the tablets. A lot of it is actually pretty architecture independent, but a lot of the really tricky, clever, low level power management is likely rather specific to the system-on-chip they're using. which brings us to...

3. Battery life: Nokia's goal with the Internet Tablet experience seems to be "always on." With that in mind, the run time should be "as long as possible" with the radios off and at least a solid day with either bluetooth or wifi on the whole time. There isn't an Intel CPU/chipset combo that can deliver competitive power-usage to an ARM CPU at the same price. If Intel could do that, you would see *someone else* releasing an MID with a price close to the N810 and similar battery life. Instead we see MIDs starting with sub-4 hour runtimes and no "always on" mode. Let alone...

4. MIDs are starting at $750. Nokia started the N810 at $480. That's a not insignificant price discrepancy. (I'll admit, of all the categories this is most likely to change the fastest. Still, something to consider.)

5. The size: A system based around Intel's Atom will be bigger than the Nokia Internet Tablets. Much bigger. There's not really a clever way to get around this. The Atom is a CPU, the TI OMAP (and most ARMs) are a system-on-chip. The Atom needs more support chips. (I'm relatively sure that) the Atom dissipates more heat [citation needed]. And it just needs a bigger battery. This combined is going to push MIDs to bigger sizes than something based around an ARM system-on-chip solution.


So, what do I think people should spend their time on instead? There are two big areas going forward that I think make at least a little sense:
1. Getting Ubuntu Mobile apps repackaged and optimized for Maemo/OS2008. See something you like, give packaging a try! Ubuntu Mobile apps are largely written with a Hildon UI, just like OS2008 apps. I think the biggest win will be through cooperation between and sharing of applications between Ubuntu Mobile and OS2008. I have high hopes of this happening going forward!

2. If you're dead set on running a desktop Linux distro on the N8x0, take a look at N8x0 Debian. Ubuntu is like 90%+ the same as Debian. That 10% difference is the part you'll have to disable because it's taking up all 128MB of RAM and 384MB of swap on boot. See where I'm going here? What you gain from using Debian instead is the fact that Debian (unlike Ubuntu) has targeted a release at our processors. Like something from Ubuntu? Chances are you'll barely even need to change the packaging to get it working.

This is just my 2 cents, but I'd like to think that I do know something about the situation.

-John