I've attempted to do this a couple of times and I can only describe the experience as somewhat frustrating. Yes, it can be done, but it's often an exercise in aggravation as you're counting on a stable network connection for this. When you're travelling, you don't always have a stable connection, especially if it's Wi-fi based, and remote desktops are all about latency. Every time you move the mouse, every time you type something and don't see a response for 10 seconds, you'll curse the fact that you don't have a real computer with you. Not to mention, sometimes, we're really unaware of exactly how many pixels are moving around when we do simple tasks (like minimize a window, or redraw a table, or... whatever) -- we expect these things to happen instantly, and they really don't.I have a "content-producing" job where I can telecommute quite frequently. I want to take this freedom and get even more out of it by traveling (in and out of the US) but still being able to work remotely. Sure, I could take a laptop, but I like to travel light and was thinking about tablets. Is the tablet technology of today at the point where I could remote-desktop into a powerful laptop or PC and run powerful software packages (I do a lot of statistical analysis and electromagnetic simulations)? I figure the real computer is doing all the legwork, and you're really just sending pixel information across the internet to the tablet. But what the fuck do I know?
Do yourself a favour and buy an ultralight or a netbook or something of the sort. It's more expensive, and it's not as light, but it's functional. Tablets (that aren't a Surface Pro) are, at best, a last resort for serious work.