[Windows 8 General] caldwelljt:
Can someone point or steer me in the right direction?

I am a IT/hackit type person, and I am searching for the best "do it all" system. I don't mind glitchy/buggy systems so long as I can always boot or flash the system stable if I need/want to.

(Read below, if you want to know why/how I got here)

I am largely clueless about windows 7, 2008r2, 8, 8rt, and all post wince phone varients, but I want to expose myself to it if at all possible. I really want to re.perk my interest in linux/android/windows and anything else I am not up on (Facebook/twitter/cloudXYZ intigration).

I haven't used an iphone/ipad much (I had an early ipod, one of the USB sticks with no screen). Other than almost always smooth interface, and high res display, it hasn't perked my interest much. That may just be all the guppies, itunes, closed mindedness, and general leash to many of them wear. If I ever got one, it would either need to run android (or heck, windows, bsd, anything), or there would need some other compelling reason ( runs android/google play apps, has a 3rd part app store, or I dunno, something).

Anyways, back on topic...

I am seeking hardware that can do all, or most all, of the following:

Run android ICS/JB

Has a somewhat active community

Can operate as a tablet and phone (preferably gsm/3g with native phone support)

Can run whatever flavors of windows are interesting (Windows 8, windows 8 rt, etc)

If needed, I can jump ship to x86, but I don't know how unusable android might be.

I'm willing to virtualize or split hardware if I must. (I.e. voip, vmware, terminal, etc.)

A nice plus would be incredible hardware specs (4 core or >1gb ram), even if price is high.

Right now I have a 2 month old galaxy tab 7.7 (p6800). It died, and is in the process of being fixed/replaced/refunded. It's demise prompted my search for a replacement, which in turn, brought me across some windows 8 articles. All I know about windows 8 is what I read in the past hour or so. I came across some stuff about an ARM capable windows (though limited by secure boot), some dual booting of windows x86 tablets, and I think some ICS/win7phone?, etc. I couldn't figure out where to start reading and/or if I should skip it or split it.

BELOW:

Welcome to my personal short story. In short, I have been very ill, and offline for the past 4 years. Prior to that I haven't gone more than a day or two since 1986 without in some way using a computer. I have always hovered at the bleeding edge, and started my career pushing customized solutions, documentation, and "proof of concept" designs.

Fast forward to 2007, using my IT skills I switched to a more top end systems/workflow design, decision matrix, and proof of concept (often centered around server consolidation, virtualization, and terminal emulation (everything from bsd/linux to dos/windows). I also touched countless applications from legacy to high end multimedia/desktops. Most all of my off time was spent pushing hardware, network(+internet), operating system, and virtulalization/duel booting/cross platform interoperability.

Shortly before 2004, I had a life saving surgery, and was good to go (at my best). Then, in 2007/2008 I suffered several major relapses in health. From then until early this year (2012), I was so sick, I couldn't do much at all. Being an early adopter of the original motorola droid, I did manage to stay in touch. I did some very simplistic modding, but didn't have the brain power to do much. My family got me a droid x and a xoom tablet later on, and I had a couple good spells where I rooted and did lite modding.

Why all this detail? It's my best effort to show my perspective and maybe where I am trying to come at or re-enter the IT/hackery world. I really want to catch up, start having fun again, and get cleared to work again!

Thanks for reading this, any pointers to hardware, ariticals, forums, and/or just some search terms would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

-D0c5i5 (aka. Jon or JonC)