I think it'd make an ideal machine to run NeXTStep/OpenStep on - heck, it could almost be a NeXT slab!
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=112090
I don't know if anyone has tried NS/OS on an atom based machine. I'm going to assume that it probably would not work with the onboard SATA controller unless it has a really good IDE backwards compatibility mode.
You'd just have to try it out :P
chance,
You could definitely run OpenSTEP or NeXTSTEP within a virtual machine on that. I run OpenSTEP in full screen mode on my modern iMac and it looks and feels like it's running natively. I use a quick key combo to toggle between OpenSTEP and Mac OS X. I'm sure you could do something similar under XP or under Linux or Solaris.
Brian Moore