[Asus Transformer TF700] IT Wannabe:
I disagree with the people saying that you would not be happy with the TF700.

It is obviously true that the Infinity is not a laptop. It's not even a "proper" netbook, as most people would assume a netbook has an x86 processor. Saying that it will outright not satisfy someone is illogical, though. Just because h?2 mentioned that he wishes to replace a laptop doesn't mean that (s?)he is immediately not going to be able to accomplish the tasks that he planned to use a laptop for with the TF700.

I had a standard sort of Asus EeePC netbook for a few months and then began playing with Android tablets. I ended up settling on the original Transformer tablet with its keyboard dock. The things I was using the netbook for were immediately taken over by the Transformer, and after having not used my netbook for 4 months, I just gave it to my mother. The tablet was good enough for browsing the web (and with Chrome browsing has gotten significantly better than it had been when I first got the tablet), staying on top of email in almost real-time, music, my video library, Netflix and Hulu, and keeping track of my servers via SSH.

I have settled on some apps that I'll suggest to you for some of the things you are trying to accomplish:

Maildroid - This is the only e-mail client that meets all of my needs - Free

Better Terminal Emulator Pro (BTEP) - This is an amazing terminal client and SSH client... worth every penny!! - $3.99 (USD)

Chrome - Every Android browser had at least one issue that I hate. Chrome has changed that, and I use it exclusively - Free

TeamViewer - This is one of the easiest to use remote GUI clients available, and it works with Linux and Windows - Free for non-commercial use

TeamViewer isn't perfect... it isn't free open-source software, but it gives me fantastic control of my Windows PC without forcing my session to log off when I log in remotely with remote desktop. Remote desktop on Win 7 Ultimate does strange things and does not allow multiple users to log in the same way it does on Windows Server 2008 R2. TeamViewer allows me to take advantage of my tremendously powerful home desktop PC (with a Core i7-3930K) and all its virtual machines when I need to do some real computing.

BTEP is the absolute best terminal and SSH client program that I have found, and I have tested pretty much every one that was available a year ago. It allows you to use the tablet itself as if it is a minimalist GNU/Linux machine, which comes in handy more often that you might think, assuming you are used to the Linux command line. The SSH client is also great, and supports key pair authentication. I IRC from my Linode (a Linux VPS company) VPS, and BTEP allows me to bind the volume and a few other buttons to normal keyboard buttons. I can use the volume buttons to send the key bindings for F1 and F2, which are bound to previous and next window in IRSSI. It is useless for most people, but the fact that they put the thought into supporting that tells you something about their forethought when developing this software. It is one of only a very few apps that I decided were worth spending money on.

With the combination of TeamViewer and BTEP, I have access to all the computing and network resources that I could ever need. I often use TeamViewer if there is a pressing reason to use Firefox on my desktop rather than the tablet's mobile browser. I can also remotely work with LibreOffice if I need to do anything that I don't feel Polaris Office can handle. I don't even have the temptation to bother installing Ubuntu on my tablet because I simply don't need that functionality. I can get everything done that I need using Android and the apps available in the Google Play market.

So, yeah, a tablet is not a laptop, but sometimes a tablet is all you really need. It sounds a lot like h?2 doesn't need much more than a tablet with a nice physical keyboard. Tweaking the tablet to run or dual-boot Debian is something that may not even need to be done, but he can certainly take on that challenge because he might find it fun!