Almost nothing I run is x86-only. There are official builds of Ubuntu for SPARC and PPC and, now, for ARM, that bring me a full rich desktop experience with just about any computer I can lay my hands on.

I am home wherever I can run Gnome, Emacs, Subversion and Django. I see no reason, lack of commercial availability excepted, not to be running on ARM since long ago.

In fact, back in the late 90s, I had a MIPS-based IBM z-50 that ran NetBSD off a compact-flash card remarkably well. Due to its limited memory, I had do screen and ssh my way to other computers where I actually worked, but, anyway, having a completely silent portable Unix RISC workstation that ran for up to 10 hours on a single battery charge was a remarkable experience.