>>3
ITT we install Xorg on a server, because you can never waste enough ressources.

>>6
If he tries really hard, he might even manage to! All he needs is a time machine to take him back to 1999!

>>1
Depends on how much experience you have with anything remoteley unixish. If it's few to none, the thing you'll be doing most if probably figuring out how to actually do stuff.

A reasonably easy thing to do is hosting a web site for trying out different web programming frameworks or languages, if you're into that sort of thing. Using it as a simple NAS box via FTP or Samba is also rather doable.

As always in these cases, google is your best friend.