I am designing a board from scratch, including custom logic in an
FPGA. I would also like to use a microprocessor running a simple
Linux (or linux-variant) OS. Basically, I would like to use Linux for
its TCP/IP stack, and eventually use its filesystem.

I am planning on running apache or some other simple web server to
access loe-level hardware information from the board. I realize that
this will involve some development, which is why I am looking for a
small and simple linux variant that will get me up and running quickly.

Does anyone have experience with this? What microprocessor would you
recommend? What linux variant OS would you recommend. I've been
looking at ucLinux and eCOS.

Thanks