I did run 2.9bsd on this machine and I like it better, but the distro struggles to fit on (4) rl02s and then can't recompile itself due to lack of space.
The System III idea is kind of homage to my Solaris years and for bragging rights to my teenage friends who know nothing but Linux (and I kinda feel (as a stretch) like Linux is in the System III line). That said, I'd was originally going for System V, but when I recompiled it under the emulator, I found out that it requires separate I&D, so the 11/34 is out; System III is next closest. Eventually I'll be doing this same exercise on mt split 11/45 and then have some serious bragging rights :)
I sure hope there's a pdp11 sdcard / usb disk solution someday like they did for the Commodore 64 - I could even pay a little for it. And for some clever kernel optimizing hack that'll let me run a tcp/ip stack on my poor little-address-space 11/45 so I can telnet to it with 2.11bsd.
I'm totally in the market for an Able Enable board too! Out of curiosity, is it totally out of the question to just find the prints and do a production run? I mean if we got 100 people in at a hundred each, wouldn't that cover it? There's enough interest in vintage now that that headcount could realistically happen.