I remember cross-compiling a very stripped down linux for a 486 25 mhz laptop with 20 mb ram around 2000. I had tried a standard debian first but it was dogslow. The trick was stripping everything down so it fit into 20 mb ram without swapping, then it ran fine. Tweaked the compilation options of everything on there to squeeze every last bit of ram out of it. I wrote most of a C++ web app on that machine, with an older opera version to test with. That was a super fun project.

Maybe the slow startup times from the article are swap-related. Shutdown taking five minutes is a dead give away.