I don't think it's a good idea to have that doorbell, or any doorbell that is surveilling at all times and you don't own the recordings. Who knows who is watching them.
I was just using a 2012 X230 running Arch and it's plenty snappy on the command line or even running an electron based editor (or as good as such a thing can be)
For the length of time this article covered you would need a power source and to not have your box discovered for months. Probably something out on the street isn't going to fulfill both of those requirements so you'd be trying to enter "Enterprise A" which is unlikely given the presumed elevated security profile this article implies (any guesses who?). With what they pulled off the "box" that ended up being used was something already plugged in next door and very much supposed to be there. Seems easier than any physical attack would have been.