This jailbreak has been hands down the easiest I've ever done. I thought I would have to wait until 4.0 to jailbreak my new 3GS but I'm glad I only had to wait 2 weeks :)
I'd go for a PIX 515 and then upgrade it to 128MB of RAM if it isn't already. You should be able to run version 8 code without any issues (I currently run this setup at home without any difficulties)
try the following command from the CLI "oowriter" and copy/paste the error message(s) here. Also have you recently performed a "yum update -y"? If not please issue that command first.
The best advice I can give you from experience is to first lookup some local data centers in the area. Once you find a few, try to find out who are the Network Engineers or CTOs. Even though you are a complete stranger, introducing yourself in a formal way saying you are greatly interested in...
Who says one learning off a RHEL-based system can't enjoy themselves? If I was getting started out with Linux I would rather learn on a system that is proven stable versus one that is bleeding edge with a great number of bugs. Once he gets comfortable with Linux then by all means go for the...
FreeBSD is a good starter if you are interested in understanding the workings of a typical UNIX-like operating system. Once you get comfortable with FreeBSD I would highly recommend you look into Red hat Enterprise Linux (freely available as CentOS) as it is highly common in the corporate realm.