Agreed, the 8th Gen aren’t very speedy even if you over clock.  My dad’s Archos 70 is sometimes sluggish even with default Android and I’ve wind up leaving it set to running at maximum speed for him to avoid performance issues most of the time but that eats into the run time considerably.

Considering how batteries deteriorate over time, I would hope they start offering more user replaceable battery models.  Along with a fingerprint resistant layer, the Archos and many of these other tablets are fingerprint magnets 😛

But this is why many are looking to the next gen offerings to implement most of these new options.  While the new 9th Gen Archos tablets is a significant improvement over the 8th gen and should be fast enough to run even full Ubuntu adequately, or at least far better than a 8th gen system. 

Open Source PowerVR SGX linux drivers are also suppose to be out sometime this late fall for better all around support. The project has been going on for years but they seem confident that they will finally get something out.

The drivers would also be good news for the new Cedar Trail systems from Intel.  Since they adopted the PowerVR SGX545 for their new GMA 5600 and 5650.  The problem with the original GMA500, which used the PowerVR SGX535, was the lack of proper driver support for linux, etc. and it was bad enough that it developed a reliability reputation and Intel avoided using it again except for their really low power consumption offerings.  Like even the newer Oak Trail still uses GMA600, which is based on the GMA500.

Not to mention all the other systems that use Imagination’s PowerVR GPU’s, like Apple uses them heavily.  Though this may only be for series 5 models and they’re starting to come out with the next gen Series 6 soon.

The 10.1 has a very dated SOC (single core, Cortex-A8, 1Ghz), so no surprises there.

I believe, there is no point in running a full-blown Linux on anything less than Tegra2 or OMAP4, 1GB of speedy RAM and a decent SSD.

I commend Archos for supporting Linux but they should put MUCH stronger hw under these OS-es since this will trigger nothing else but disapointment in actual use.