Your Palm Pre Can Now Run Basically Any Linux Application

iPhone OS is on perpetual lockdown. Android hacking’s boring, considering the platform’s Linux credentials. It’s webOS, Palm’s Linux-based OS, where some of the best gratuitous, for-the-hell-of-it hacking is taking place nowadays. Exhibit A: OpenOffice, running on a Pre. A Pre!

This hack is about 23 sweaty steps more obscure than your run-of-the-mill webOS Quickinstall homebrew app routine, but it’s not impossible. Here’s the routine, in abstract, by PreCentral user BoraWare:

- Install Debian Chroot Environment (wiki available at webos-internals)
- Install X Server package from the preware testing feed
- Install Window Manger (not required, but very difficult to use without one)
- Modify X Server startup scripts to load Window Manger
- Use Debian environment to install new apps (google will help you there)