> So by "small" I mean small enough to be used without getting out of the
> car (in order to set the machine on the hood or trunk). And though many
In that case, a 10" netbook (like the MSI Wind or a plethora of others)
would probably be a good option. You can have them for very cheap
nowadays, and they're just "small x86 laptops" so the installation of
Debian is completely straightforward.
Stefan