i get were you are coming from mr. g.  IMHO: Tablets are just the new gadget with which to lure the money out of your wallet. I was fortunate in getting a $99 dollar hp touchpad. (I'm a geek, i want a new gadget). It's a fun toy. WebOS is quiet good imo. The homebrew community has compiled new kernels, cli etc. I've got it overclocked. Good stuff. Still they are just shiny toys. Even when i can install a proper linux distro, it will still be just a convienient coffee table device for quickly surfing to get tv listings or watching youtube vids. Oh lest i forget it is a great ereader, though a bit heavy. I'm glad i have one, but i have better things to drop $500 on. One other thing. All these type devices are driven by the apps that consumers will buy. No apps no gadget goodness. Remember BeOS or OS2? Had them both at one time. Both stable and much better than Win3/95, but as a user there just wasnt much stuff beyond the os itself to do.
I would like someone to make an argument that these tablets are more than consumer trinkets mostly (latest status/ego boost hotness), i'd listen but i don't think it's going to happen.