Andreas Drewke wrote:
[ ... ]
> 1. Is it possible to run NetBSD/i386 from a CF like storage device(maybe more 
> a question of bios)?

Sure.

> 2. Is it possible to run it without graphics card? Is this possible at all on 
> x86 hardware (hmm, might depend on bios and hardware I guess too)

Yes, this is possible, too.  A company called Soekris makes small-form-factor 
x86 devices without graphics intended for headless operation via serial or 
network port, and I am using NetBSD 2 with a Net4801 for one project now:

http://www.soekris.com/

> 2. What about things like swap partitions. There will be enough ram in that 
> machine for the task it will do. But does NetBSD prefer a  small swap space 
> thow to do some VM tasks?

NetBSD prefers to have a swap partition available, but it will work without 
one if you are careful about which tasks you run.

[ You have two #2's, by the way. :-) ]

> 3. Has anyone run a production http server on Java & Java HTTP Server like 
> Tomcat reliable, fast(means comparable fast to other unix-like OS) through 
> linux emulation layer (I mean a server that really is under pressure of 
> course)

It is possible to build a native JDK without having to use Linux emulation to 
run Java, although you do use Linux emulation while bootstrapping a native JDK.

It's also possible to run a web server on a contrained environment, although 
thttpd and mostly static HTML resources are a better bet.  Apache + Tomcat + 
Java servlets tend to eat up a lot of memory and may not do so well in an 
environment without swap.  Java's resource useage has always struck me as 
excessive for what the Java program is actually doing, but YMMV.

-- 
-Chuck