• Location: 56031
• Mood: curious

Pondering a netbook

I've been pondering a low-end system for a while now to serve as a Hercules demonstrator. I need Linux, and the ability to compile software for the system; I also need a few gigabytes of free disk space to hold a couple of full mainframe OS disk images. I don't need a blazing fast processor, or a lot of screen space (since Hercules itself runs in a terminal, and so can the 3270 emulator needed to talk to the guest OS); a 24x80 terminal window is plenty.

I'd like a 7-inch EeePC, as that's the iconic netbook, but can I compile on, or for, it easily? For my purposes, being able to compile and run on an SD card is adequate (and might make life a little simpler, since I can use that to transfer a prebuilt mainframe disk image set from my desktop system). I know foolscap001 had issues with updates on a 4 GB box; are those surmountable with extra disk space? Can the RAM be increased (which would make life easier should I choose to run a mainframe OS that can make use of a couple of hundred megabytes of main memory)?