[CentOS] Linux on touch screen device

I have poked around in google and have seen a number of youtube videos,
but my question is whether anyone really has linux running on any kind
of tablet or tablet PC device in such a way that the touch screen can be
used productively and it won't take a month to get it running? 
Initially the two applications that are of most interest to me would be
a good web browser (maybe chromium) and thunderbird.  I would also like
to have a decent on screen keyboard which could be used to ssh to
servers in an emergency.

I've seen instructions for booting linux on various devices, but many
people doing this are using keyboards and not touchscreens.

Do applications like thunderbird have to be modified in order to work
well with a touch screen or is just getting a working driver for the
touchpad sufficient?

If anyone has any experience with this I would appreciate knowing what
hardware your running on and what linux distro/desktop environment you
use.  I've been interested in devices like the ASUS EP121 which is a
dual core I5, so it wouldn't be necessary to have an ARM distribution. 
Also the newest Asus transformer prime (arm) which I think is about 2
months away sounds interesting.

Nataraj