What development? Drop Debian, Ubuntu or Ångstrom (for the best armv7 compatibility) on there and be done with it. All three have good arm branches, so there's really no benefit to x86 here (besides, we're not dealing with binary-only software anyway).

And what cost? The Beagle is $149 out the door. Certainly sounds cheaper than the FitPC. Drop in the rest of the parts to turn it into a server and . . . you're about on-par with the FitPC. Heck, the overo sounds like it may be even cheaper (and will bundle additional stuff like Bluetooth and WiFi).

I do have a bias towards OMAP and ARM. x86 is a commodity. It's not interesting—"Oh, boy, another cheap x86 computer . . . haven't seen that before." Building an x86 something or other is old news. It's been done to death and nobody really cares anymore.

ARM on the other hand. In this in this sort of performance bracket? It's is new and exciting. It hasn't been done to death. It's fast, low power, and interesting.

Besides, since it's a pocketable server that seems to be being outlined here, it's gonna run off a battery and x86 is a major handicap for that sort of usage.

For the record, x86 simply can't compete with ARM power-wise. Looking at Wikipedia, the Geode takes up almost as much juice as the whole Beagle Board (1.8W for the Geode vs. 2W under load for the whole Beagle).